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Contents , / ,
34 Hope
Introducing the Hope Award for Effective Compassion regional winners 36 Parent practicum My Safe Harbor helps single mothers break the dysfunctional cycle of broken homes
40 Desert oasis
A border doesn’t stop Crossroads Nogales Rescue Mission from being good neighbors to those in need
44 Turkey’s inside man
An aging but popular exile in the United States, Fethullah Gulen is considered by many to be behind moves to Islamicize his native land
48 Blood on the streets
Biola University becomes ground zero in the pro-life debate over graphic abortion pictures
52 Cold Canadian front
Threats to religious liberty in Canada show what may be in store for the United States
5 News 16 Quotables 18 Quick Takes
5
23 Movies & TV 26 Books 28 Q&A 30 Music
23
57 Lifestyle 59 Technology 60 Science 61 Houses of God 62 Sports 63 Money 64 Religion
TIFFANY OWENS
48
64
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3 Joel Belz 20 Janie B. Cheaney 32 Mindy Belz 67 Mailbag 71 Andrée Seu Peterson 72 Marvin Olasky
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Joel Belz
What really happened? Raw facts do matter
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JOE BURBANK-POOL/GETTY IMAGES
S do you think happened that night two years ago in Sanford, Fla.? Now that the trial is over, and all apart from the actual verdict, who do you think told the truth? George Zimmerman or Trayvon Martin’s family? And what do you think is the real story about what happened in Benghazi, Libya, that fateful night last September? Was it really an unavoidable set of circumstances that led to the death of four Americans? Or was it dereliction of duty on the part of Hillary Clinton’s State Department? And what really happened at the Internal Revenue Service over the last couple of years? Was the bureaucracy doing the specific twisted will of a sinister administration in Washington? Or was it merely a case of careless incompetence? I asked questions like these years ago in this space—except that the questions then were about David Koresh in Waco, Texas, Rodney King in Los Angeles, and an accurate count of the participants in a gay-lesbian parade in Washington. I asked the questions then, and again now, because I find folks everywhere who are eager to discuss the meaning of what’s going on in this troubled world. But how can you possibly talk about meaning if the basic facts haven’t first been established? Right at that crucial point, I understand, some people argue that there is no such thing as a raw fact. Everything we know is conditioned by who we are, who taught us, when they taught us, whether we believed what they taught us back then, and a hundred different circumstances. I knew a young man once who rebelled against the multiplication tables, claiming their unreliability and falsehood simply because he so associated his father’s forcing him to learn those tables with that same father’s simultaneous desertion of his family. We at WORLD believe firmly, of course, that while contexts and perspectives may differ, there are such things as raw facts. Although the same “fact” may look altogether different to two sincere observers, we believe there is a “reality” that can be pursued and ultimately nailed down. Indeed, it’s that conviction that makes our
Email: jbelz@worldmag.com
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Zimmerman
journalistic enterprise something worth doing. We don’t have to settle for a neutered stalemate when someone says dismissively: “Well, it all depends on how you look at it.” Debates about public policy events and issues may seem for a while to be hopelessly stuck in the mushy middle. But for the enterprising journalist, there’s always the challenge of finding one more fact, one more bit of unarguable evidence. Then the story will be fresh all over again—pushed toward one conclusion or another. I’ve always told our staff at WORLD that one ultimate measure of our success as a news source is whether you as a reader, two or three times on every page, are saying to yourself: “I didn’t know that!” It’s possible we’ll earn such a response even with our opinions. But it’s much more likely, I think, that you’ll be responding that way when we are faithful and diligent to discover and report back to you a whole collection of “facts” about which there can be little or no disagreement. Whatever your news sources, you should be looking for those “facts” in the Benghazi story, the IRS story, and the George Zimmerman story. Even if the “facts” don’t fit the story line you prefer, stick with those facts! I encourage you always to read WORLD that way. It’s important, to be sure, that our philosophy and style of journalism share the same biblical frame of reference. It’s important that we are able to assure you that the reporters and writers we employ and add to our staff along the way have that same starting point. It’s important that all of us together be asking and exploring regularly, “What is God up to in this world?” But unless you and we carry out that assignment with those remarkable little building blocks called “facts,” we’re playing with propaganda—not journalism. In God’s order of things, that’s a kind of pretense you should never settle for. A
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Dispatches News > Quotables > Quick Takes
A second chance HASSAN AMMAR/AP
Egypt’s Christians rejoice at the president’s ouster but fear reprisals BY JAMIE DEAN
>>
T millions of Egyptian demonstrators demanded the ouster of President Mohamed Morsi, a much smaller group of Christians met in Cairo to discuss whether churches should be directly involved in politics. The unanimous consensus: No. Pope Tawadros II, leader of Egypt’s Coptic Orthodox Church, presided at the meeting of the Council of Churches. Atef Gendy, president of the Evangelical Theological Seminary
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in Cairo, attended as part of a Protestant delegation. In an email interview, Gendy said the group unanimously agreed to “declare that the church does not want to be involved in politics and will not mandate to Christians what to do or not do. Christians are full citizens and they should decide for themselves.” Less than two weeks later, a provocative image appeared on Egyptian television: DESERT STORM: Pope Tawadros II sat Egyptians rally next to the country’s outside the top Islamic cleric, as an presidential palace Egyptian general in Cairo on July .
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How can they advocate for religious freedoms without stoking anger or suspicion? It’s a question many Christians are asking, even as they are jubilant at Morsi’s ouster. After his election last year, Morsi stacked political appointments with Muslim Brotherhood members, refused to work with other political parties, and rushed passage of an Islamist-dominated constitution posing a danger to minorities, including Christians. In a country where authorities already heavily restrict Christian activity, Morsi’s regime threatened to make things worse. But Morsi’s problems weren’t just religious: The country’s fragile economy continued to spiral, with rising unemployment, soaring food prices, rolling electricity blackouts, and worsening fuel shortages. By early this year, secularists began mounting political opposition to Morsi. By June, the group had collected millions of signatures calling for Morsi’s resignation—a process culminating with mass protests that began June 30. When Morsi refused to step down, the military announced his removal on July 3, and said the country’s chief justice would serve as interim president until new elections. The military also
announced the suspension of the country’s controversial constitution. In the months before the revolution, Pope Tawadros called on government officials to allow greater freedom for religious minorities. In February, he told the Associated Press: “We are a minority in the numerical sense, but we are not a minority when it comes to value, history, interaction and love for our nation.” That’s the kind of language other Christians have used in private, while remaining unsure how to exert public influence. For some, July’s revolution provided an opportunity, as they joined the protesters demanding Morsi’s departure. Nagi Said, a pastor of the evangelical Kasr el Dobara Church in Cairo’s Tahrir Square, said many church members participated in the demonstrations: “People are celebrating the change with caution and open eyes to protect what they have gained.” Andrea Zaki of the Coptic Evangelical Organization for Social Services said the demonstrations were “like a sports crowd after a momentous, come-from-behind victory.” Others expressed relief at Morsi’s downfall but mixed feelings about the pope’s appearance at the announce-
left: Egyptian State Television/ap • right: Khalil Hamra/ap
announced the military had removed Morsi from power, barely a year after Egyptians elected him to office. Gendy said the pope’s presence was symbolic, and showed the political plan the army declared “is backed by the vast majority of people, and diversity of political and religious powers.” Churches still aren’t mandating Christians’ political decisions, but the influence is undeniable. The pope’s presence marks an unprecedented level of public influence for Copts—an often-persecuted minority. But it also evokes the ire of Islamists opposed to Morsi’s ouster. Members of the Muslim Brotherhood sharply criticized the pope for approving the controversial change of power. A day later, Christians reported attacks at a handful of churches across the country. On July 5, The Egypt Independent reported Muslim villagers looted and burned dozens of Coptic homes and businesses in an area about 300 miles south of Cairo. On July 6, assailants gunned down a Coptic priest in a city about 200 miles north of the capital. The pope’s visibility during Egypt’s second revolution in less than three years underscores an ongoing tension for Christians in the Muslim nation:
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Hassan Ammar/ap
Dispatches > News
‘People are celebrating the change with caution and open eyes to protect what they have gained.’
left: Egyptian State Television/ap • right: Khalil Hamra/ap
Hassan Ammar/ap
—Pastor Nagi Said
ment. “Christians were delighted that for the first time in recent history their leader was considered to represent a significant part of the populations,” said one Cairo pastor. “For fanatical Muslims, of course, this raises a red flag and gives the impression he is siding against them.”
Another evangelical pastor said while it’s appropriate to consult the pope’s opinions, his appearance with the top Islamic cleric was unwise: “Even without his appearance Christians were being threatened by Islamists. His appearance added fuel to the fire.” Meanwhile, political fires continued to burn in Cairo, as thousands of Muslim Brotherhood supporters protested Morsi’s ouster. Clashes with soldiers at the Republican Guard barracks—where military forces held the former president—killed at least 50 protesters in a single day. The violence threatened to upend the national euphoria, as Al Nour, the lone Islamist party supporting Morsi’s ouster, withdrew its support for the new government after the army reportedly fired on Morsi supporters. cautious optimism: Pope Tawadros II, second from right, as the military announces it had removed Morsi from power (far left); the Egyptian Air Force puts on a show as opponents of Egypt’s ousted President Mohamed Morsi celebrate in Tahrir Square (left); a protester holds a cross and Quran outside the presidential palace in Cairo (above).
Email: jdean@worldmag.com
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Even if the clashes ease, it’s unclear how secularists, Christians, and Islamists supporting the revolution will hammer out a new government. Opposition leader Mohamed ElBaradei admitted: “It is déjà vu all over again. Hopefully this time we will get it right.” Samuel Tadros, a Coptic Christian and scholar at the Hudson Institute’s Center for Religious Freedom, is far less optimistic about Egypt’s political future. “Nothing has changed in Egypt,” he said. “Egypt continues to be caught between a military rule or an Islamist alternative. Everything else is just details in between.” For now, Tadros is particularly concerned about Egyptian Christians: He worries about the pope’s visibility in recent events, and says Islamist resentment could build: “It will come as no surprise at all … if we witness an increase in the number of violent attacks against Christians, as a method of reprisal by Islamists who feel the Christians were behind all this.” Still, even if Tadros finds Christians’ high hopes unrealistic, he does find them understandable: “There’s no doubt that anything is better than Islamist rule.” A
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Sugar low We d n e s d a y, J u n e
Markey wins Massachusetts voters learned U.S. Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., defeated Republican Gabriel Gomez in the special election for the U.S. Senate, meaning Democrats will hold the seat that John Kerry gave up to become secretary of state. Republicans had hoped to repeat the upset when Republican Scott Brown won the special election to replace the late Sen. Ted Kennedy, but Markey won the seat with a comfortable percent to percent margin.
Falling star Prosecutors said Aaron Hernandez (right), a tight end for the New England Patriots, shot and killed Odin Lloyd (left) after a dispute at a Boston nightclub on June . Hernandez, who had recently signed a million contract extension with the Patriots, pleaded not guilty.
Students seeking cookies, ice cream, and high-calorie drinks will have to find them somewhere other than school. The U.S. Department of Agriculture finalized regulations that banned such items from school cafeterias and vending machines. Diet soft drinks, granola bars, and baked potato chips made the cut, and bake sales will remain free to offer sugary foods. The regulations, authorized by a child nutrition law passed by Congress in , are part of the government’s campaign against rising childhood obesity in the United States.
Eye in the sky NASA launched a satellite named Iris that has the mission of taking a new look at the sun. NASA hopes the pound satellite can help the agency better forecast space weather that disrupts communications systems on Earth. Equipped with an ultraviolet telescope that can take high-resolution images every few seconds, Iris will remain in orbit for two years.
MARKEY: ELISE AMENDOLA/AP • LLOYD: FAMILY HANDOUT VIA THE BOSTON BANDITS/AP • HERNANDEZ: MIKE GEORGE/SUN CHRONICLE/POOL/EPA/LANDOV • FOOD ITEMS: ISTOCK • LAMM: DAVID KARP/AP
T h u r s d a y, J u n e
Resigned The chancellor at Yeshiva University’s prestigious seminary resigned on July and apologized
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for poorly handling sex abuse accusations at the institution from the s. Rabbi Norman Lamm, , a well-known figure among Orthodox Jews, wrote a letter to students, staff, and alumni saying he must repent for his actions. More than former students have accused two professors of sex abuse and the university of covering up the allegations. Lamm did not cite the controversy as a reason for his resignation.
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Dispatches > News
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YARNELL HILL: DAVID KADLUBOWSKI/THE ARIZONA REPUBLIC/AP • OBAMA: JEROME DELAY/AP • MASIH: FAROOQ NAEEM/AFP/GETTY IMAGES • PUIG: LISA BLUMENFELD/GETTY IMAGES • SOUTH AFRICA: MUHAMMED MUHEISEN/AP
Dean Smith watches as the Yarnell Hill Fire encroaches on his home in Glenn Ilah.
S a t u r d a y, J u n e
On to the House President Obama, during a trip to South Africa, urged the U.S. House to pass an immigration overhaul before its August recess. Two days earlier, the Senate had voted - to pass a massive bill that would strengthen border security and create a -year path to citizenship for the country’s estimated million illegal immigrants. There was little indication House leaders would heed Obama’s call and move quickly: Many House members are concerned that the Senate bill legalizes immigrants before security measures are in place.
Canadian refuge Canadian Immigration Minister Jason Kenney announced that Rimsha Masih, a Pakistani Christian girl falsely accused of burning pages from the Quran, had arrived in Canada. A cleric in Pakistan had accused Masih of burning pages from the Quran. She was acquitted of the charge, but she and her family went into hiding to avoid vigilante mobs that often attack and kill Pakistanis accused of blasphemy. Official reports state Masih’s age as , but some of her supporters claim she is .
S u n d a y, J u n e
Western blaze A fire near Yarnell, Ariz., that started on June killed firefighters as it quickly grew into a -square-mile inferno that destroyed homes in less than hours. The fire was started by lightning, and triple-digit temperatures helped spread the blaze. The loss of of the elite -member Granite Mountain Hotshots was the highest firefighter death toll since /.
Beginner’s skill Yasiel Puig of the Los Angeles Dodgers had the best first month in Major League baseball since Joe DiMaggio. With four hits on June , Puig achieved hits in his first at-bats. Puig escaped from Cuba last year and signed a seven-year, million contract with the Dodgers.
Arrested Police in Pretoria, South Africa, arrested a man who sent up a flying camera to capture
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aerial footage above the crowds outside former President Nelson Mandela’s hospital. Authorities detained the man, F.C. Hammam, for several hours on June but released him after questioning—and confiscating his equipment. Hammam apologized for the incident and said he didn’t realize he was breaking any laws with his actions, which some dubbed “drone journalism.” No charges were immediately filed.
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Dispatches > News Tu e s d a y, J u l y
M o n d a y, J u l y
Secular yoga? Yoga is not religious, at least not when taught by the Encinitas Union School District in California, ruled Superior Court Judge John S. Meyer. Some parents had argued in court that the San Diego district’s teaching of Ashtanga Yoga to schoolchildren amounts to an unconstitutional establishment of religion. The classes are sponsored by the Jois Foundation, which says on its website that Ashtanga Yoga is “an ancient system that can lead to liberation and greater awareness of our spiritual potential.” Judge Meyer said the district, however, teaches yoga in a non-religious way to promote strength, flexibility, and balance. The plaintiffs plan to appeal the ruling.
American abroad Russian President Vladimir Putin said NSA leaker Edward Snowden could remain in Russia as long as he stopped revealing American secrets. “There is one condition if he wants to remain here: He must stop his work aimed at damaging our American partners. As odd as it may sound from me,” Putin said. Snowden said he wanted to leave Russia, suggesting he may have more secret material he wishes to make public. Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro offered Snowden asylum on July .
Deadly prescriptions The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that , women took overdoses of painkillers in , a sharp increase. “These are dangerous medications,” said CDC Director Tom Frieden, “and they should be reserved for situations like severe cancer pain.”
YOGA: GREGORY BULL/AP • JARRET: DONALD TRAILL/AP • SNOWDEN: KIN CHEUNG/AP • JOHN PAUL II: ANWAR HUSSEIN/WIREIMAGE/GETTY IMAGES
Kristen McCloskey leads a class of third graders at Olivenhain Pioneer Elementary School in Encinitas, Calif.
With the economy struggling through a recovery and with midterm elections next year, the Obama administration announced that it will postpone a key Obamacare regulation. The requirement that companies with more than employees provide health insurance to workers will take effect in instead of Jan. , . “In our ongoing discussions with businesses we have heard that you need the time to get this right,” said senior White House adviser Valerie Jarrett. “We are listening.” Republicans said the delay shows the weaknesses of the law. “The White House seems to slowly be admitting what Americans already know … that Obamacare needs to be repealed and replaced with common-sense reforms that actually lower costs for Americans,” said Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell.
Honored The Vatican announced it will grant sainthood to Pope John Paul II, the well-traveled leader credited with helping end communism in Europe. Pope Francis, who ascended to the post in March, signed the decree on July after confirming the necessary second miracle needed for sainthood. John Paul served as the th pope from until his death in —the third-longest reign in the history of the Roman Catholic Church. He was beloved by many but also endured heavy criticism for the way he handled clerical sex abuse scandals in the early s.
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EGYPT: AMR NABIL/AP • FIREWORKS EXPLOSION: ZACH REISTER/AP • VICTIMS: WENDY PIERRO/THE VENTURA COUNTY STAR/AP • MORGAN: BOB CHILD/AP
Wait til next year
YOGA: GREGORY BULL/AP • JARRET: DONALD TRAILL/AP • SNOWDEN: KIN CHEUNG/AP • JOHN PAUL II: ANWAR HUSSEIN/WIREIMAGE/GETTY IMAGES
EGYPT: AMR NABIL/AP • FIREWORKS EXPLOSION: ZACH REISTER/AP • VICTIMS: WENDY PIERRO/THE VENTURA COUNTY STAR/AP • MORGAN: BOB CHILD/AP
Fireworks explode in the air and on the ground (below); victims are treated by medical personnel (bottom).
We d n e s d a y, J u l y
No more Morsi
The Egyptian military announced it had removed President Mohamed Morsi from office and placed the Muslim Brotherhood leader under house arrest. The military said Egypt’s chief justice will serve as interim president. Opposition to Morsi had been growing as he stacked Egypt’s government with members of the Muslim Brotherhood, imposed an Islamist constitution on the country, and presided over an economic tailspin. By late June, Egyptians in record numbers took to the streets to demand Morsi’s resignation.
Bathroom break The California Assembly approved a bill that requires public schools to allow transgender students to use restrooms and locker rooms and join sports teams based on their gender “identity.” Opponents said youthful sex offenders may use the bill for abusive ends. Said Brad Dacus of the Pacific Justice Institute: “Students using bathGENDER NEUTRAL rooms, locker rooms, or RESTROOM school showers should Anyone can use this restroom regardless of gender identity or expression not have the anxiety and uncertainty and fear that any time someone from the opposite sex could come in and there would be no retribution for doing so.”
Pro-life win In a surprise move, the state Senate in North Carolina passed an amendment to an unrelated bill that would ban taxpayer funding for abortions, protect freedom of conscience for all healthcare professionals, and require abortion centers to meet the facility standards of ambulatory surgical centers. Only one of the state’s abortion centers currently meets those standards. An estimated protesters showed up on one-night’s notice and chanted “shame” at the senators after the vote.
T h u r s d a y, J u l y
Errant blast A blast at a fireworks show northwest of Los Angeles injured dozens on Independence Day. Investigators suspected that a premature explosion knocked over other fireworks, aiming them at a crowd of thousands and setting them off. The resulting shrapnel injured people. Nationwide, the American Pyrotechnics Association expected fireworks sales this year to beat last year’s total of million. Drought conditions last year prompted communities in the Midwest to ban fireworks.
Died Historian Edmund S. Morgan, , one of the nation’s premiere experts on colonial America, died on July . Morgan, an atheist, wrote critically but sympathetically about Puritan thought and life. He began writing in the s, and his most recent book, published at age , is a best-selling biography of Benjamin Franklin. Morgan, who taught at Yale from to , said he couldn’t read books like he wrote—they would put him to sleep—preferring instead to read straight from the founders’ own writings.
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Rick running?
S a t u r d a y a n d S u n d a y, J u l y -
Crash landing A dramatic evacuation saved the lives of of the passengers on Asiana Airlines Flight after the Boeing crashed at San Francisco’s international airport. The two people killed in the crash, Chinese students Ye Mengyuan, , and Wang Linjia, , were on their way to a summer program at West Valley Christian Church and School in West Hills, Calif. Investigators were trying to determine whether the cause of the crash was pilot error or a problem with the plane’s or airport’s equipment.
British win
‘War zone’ Authorities in Quebec said at least people were dead and about were missing after a runaway train derailed near the town of Lac-Mégantic on July . Blasts from burning oil tanker cars devastated the town of ,, causing Fire Chief Denis Lauzon to compare Lac-Mégantic to “a war zone.” Several of the cars in the -car train burned for days.
Britain’s Andy Murray won the men’s championship at Wimbledon on July , becoming the first British man to win the title in years. Murray defeated Novak Djokovic -, -, - in front of , spectators at the All England Club. Fred Perry in was the last British man to win Wimbledon.
Texas Gov. Rick Perry announced that he will not seek re-election in but also didn’t rule out any “future considerations” such as a presidential run in . Perry recently rehired long-time aide Mark Miner, one of his advisers during his short-lived presidential bid in .
Bill blocked U.S. District Judge William Conley delayed a pro-life bill in Wisconsin that was set to take effect July . The law, signed by Gov. Scott Walker, would require abortion centers to have hospital admission privileges within miles. A second hearing on the law was scheduled for July .
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Died Douglas Dayton, , founding president of Target Corp., died July after a lengthy battle with cancer. Dayton, the uncle of Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton, was a third-generation retailer who helped transform a family business into the second-largest retailer in the United States. Dayton received a purple heart for his World War II military service, then returned to the states to work as a store manager in the family business. He became the first president of Target in , which eventually absorbed the parent company, Dayton-Hudson, in .
FLIGHT 214: MARCIO JOSE SANCHEZ/AP • PERRY: RICARDO BRAZZIELL/AUSTIN AMERICAN-STATESMAN/AP • MURRAY: KIRSTY WIGGLESWORTH/AP • LAC-MÉGANTIC: PAUL CHIASSON/THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP WALKER: RYAN FOLEY/AP • DAYTON: HANDOUT
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KNIGHT: HENNES PAYNTER COMMUNICATIONS/AP • POPE: TIZIANA FABI/AFP/GETTY IMAGES •BMW: HANDOUT • POSTER: HANDOUT • MINNESOTA: JIM MONE/AP • ABDULLAH: SAUDI PRESS AGENCY/AP • ANDERSON: HANDOUT
Dispatches > News
FLIGHT 214: MARCIO JOSE SANCHEZ/AP • PERRY: RICARDO BRAZZIELL/AUSTIN AMERICAN-STATESMAN/AP • MURRAY: KIRSTY WIGGLESWORTH/AP • LAC-MÉGANTIC: PAUL CHIASSON/THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP WALKER: RYAN FOLEY/AP • DAYTON: HANDOUT
KNIGHT: HENNES PAYNTER COMMUNICATIONS/AP • POPE: TIZIANA FABI/AFP/GETTY IMAGES •BMW: HANDOUT • POSTER: HANDOUT • MINNESOTA: JIM MONE/AP • ABDULLAH: SAUDI PRESS AGENCY/AP • ANDERSON: HANDOUT
July 25
Pope Francis will travel to his home continent of South America for World Youth Day. Hosted this year in Rio de Janeiro, the conference for Catholic youths is the first to be held in Latin America in more than a quarter century. And while Francis doesn’t arrive until July , the week-long festivities begin on July .
Tu e s d a y, J u l y
Ready to speak Amanda Berry, Michelle Knight, and Gina DeJesus, the three women held captive in a Cleveland house for years by abductor Ariel Castro, spoke to the public for the first time since their escape two months ago. “We need to take a leap of faith and know that God is in control,” said Knight. “We have been hurt by people, but we need to rely on God as being the judge. God has a plan for all of us. The plan that He gave me is to help others who have been in the same situation I have been in.” Castro faces hundreds of charges, including murder for allegedly beating Knight until she miscarried several children he had conceived with her.
. For daily news concerning education, poverty-fighting, pro-life action, and a variety of political, economic, and social issues, along with perspective from Mindy Belz, Marvin Olasky, Andree Seu Peterson, Cal Thomas, and others, go to www.worldmag.com.
LOOKING AHEAD July 27
A group billed as the Bradley Manning Support Network is trying to organize worldwide protests to show support for the U.S. soldier arrested in and charged with passing classified documents to the Wikileaks website. The group’s protests are planned to coincide with the final parts of his military court martial.
July 29
The production version of BMW’s i all-electric sedan is scheduled for today. In addition to being electric, the German manufacturer’s vehicle will be the industry’s first car made almost exclusively of carbon-fiber reinforced plastic, a light but sturdy composite. BMW plans to manufacture the vehicle’s frame and interior in Moses Lake, Wash.
Aug. 1 Minnesota’s gay marriage law
takes effect, making Minnesota the th state to allow homosexual couples to marry. With the June Supreme Court DOMA decision, states allowing gay marriage must grant access to federal benefits that previously were available only to heterosexual married couples.
Aug. 1
Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah turns today. The date usually prompts speculation about the aging royal’s successor to the Saudi crown. With a number of brothers already dead, the chance of a generational change in the House of Saud grows with each birthday.
Died One of the nation’s first television broadcast preachers, Gordon Anderson, died on July at age .
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After a local television station began airing his rallies in the early s, Anderson founded Tele-Missions International, which his son, Gordon Anderson Jr., currently operates out of Florida. Anderson, the son of a traveling minister, didn’t like the term “televangelist” and refused to call himself one, noting he “never asked for a single dollar on the air.” He retired in as pastor of First Baptist Church in Ossining, N.Y.
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Dispatches > News CRAFT DODGER: A Hobby Lobby cashier rings up a customer in Augusta, Ga.
the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. But he didn’t agree with the court’s ruling that it was a constitutional violation. Other circuit courts have also granted injunctions to religious business owners, but not on constitutional grounds. The th Circuit explained its position, noting that constitutional Ahead of massive fines, appeals court rules for-profit companies religious freedom covers do need religious freedom protection BY EMILY BELZ more than the freedom of thought: “[A]t the time of the [First] Amendment’s inception in case and granted Hobby Lobby a prelimW U.S. S C Congress, a competing formulation for inary injunction against the mandate, handed down its Citizens United the ‘free exercise of religion’ was ‘rights just as the company faced massive fines decision in , providing First of conscience,’” Tymkovich wrote. starting July . Amendment protections for cor“Congress chose exercise, indicating Hobby Lobby’s employee health porations’ political speech, religious that, as the Supreme Court has freplan currently covers of the FDAbusiness owners didn’t know how usequently held, the protections of the approved contraceptives: its owners ful that ruling would become three Religion Clauses extend beyond the object to the abortifacients Plan B and years later in challenges to Obamacare. walls of a church, synagogue, or Ella, as well as two intrauterine At the end of June the th U.S. mosque to religiously motivated devices. Without the injunction the Circuit Court of Appeals became the first conduct, as well as religious belief.” company would face fines of . milto rule that corporations with religious He continued: “[S]incerely religious lion a day for not providing the full business owners could be entitled to persons could find a connection menu of contraceptives, adding up to constitutional religious freedom protecbetween the exercise of religion and about million a year. tions. The -page decision based its the pursuit of profit. … A religious indiWith the administration’s argument in part on the Citizens United vidual may enter the for-profit realm announcement this month that it will decision. The question of whether intending to demonstrate to the mardelay the requirement that employers corporations have religious freedom ketplace that a corporation can succeed provide health insurance until , protections is largely new to courts. financially while adhering to religious Hobby Lobby could theoretically drop “We see no reason the Supreme values. As a court, we do not see how employee health insurance altogether Court would recognize constitutional we can distinguish this form of evangewithout incurring any federal fines for protection for a corporation’s political lism from any other.” another year. But the company has said expression but not its religious expresThe Obama administration released it wants to continue to provide health sion,” wrote Judge Timothy Tymkovich its finalized contraceptive mandate coverage for its employees, and so the for the court. around the same time as the th contraceptive mandate remains in A full panel of the th Circuit ruled Circuit’s ruling, saying in the regulaeffect. Even with the delay of the - that the federal contraceptive mantion, “The departments are unaware of employer mandate, if Hobby Lobby date inflicted significant harm on craft any court granting a religious exempprovides its employees with insurance retailer Hobby Lobby, owned by the tion to a for-profit organization, and coverage, it must include contraceptives evangelical Green family. This came decline to expand the definition of or face the daily . million fines. after a two-judge panel of the th eligible organization to include forA recent Obama appointee, Judge Circuit had dismissed Hobby Lobby’s profit organizations.” Robert Bacharach, joined the court’s case in December. The issue is likely to find its way to majority agreeing the contraceptive At the latest ruling’s direction, a the Supreme Court soon. A mandate harmed Hobby Lobby under district judge immediately reheard the
Hobby Lobby breathes again
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Dispatches > Quotables
Muslim Brotherhood spokesman Gehad El-Haddad, to ABC News, after Egypt’s military removed President Mohamed Morsi from office (see p. 5).
‘I think it’s to the church’s poverty that the average worship song now has so few words, so little truth. [It] is so focused on several commercial aspects of God, like the fact that he loves our praises.’
U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, on the legality of the Obama administration’s decision to delay the employer healthcare mandate until 2015 (see p. 10). Harkin was one of the authors of the healthcare law.
‘I’m worried that will be on my tombstone: “She had a great Twitter feed.”’ Writer Claire Berlinski, in a tweet after someone complimented her for her reports from Turkey on Twitter.
‘45 percent’ The percentage of four-year college graduates who work in jobs that do not require a college degree, according to a survey from McKinsey & Company. About a third of graduates said they didn’t think college had fully prepared them to enter the working world.
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Harkin: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images • El-Haddad: handout • Getty: handout • Berlinski: handout • graduates: Scott Olson/Getty Images
Hymn writer Keith Getty, on worship songs in American churches. Getty co-wrote “In Christ Alone,” a hymn that is gaining popularity in churches.
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7/10/13 11:16 AM
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‘This was the law. How can they change the law?’
‘There is no plan B. … We either return the president back to his rightful place, or they’re just gonna have to shoot us in the streets.’
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7/9/13 3:30 PM
Dispatches > Quick Takes
- After a long years, Parisians’ wait for Le Whopper to return will soon be over. After pulling its fast-food burger franchises out of France in due to poor sales, Burger King has begun the arduous work of reconquering France. The American chain set up two of its burger joints in France in December and plans to open up shop in Paris later this year. Burger King’s proposed location suggests it sees a way to capture a share of the growing fast-food market in France. Saint Lazare metro station, Burger King’s target location for its first entrant into Paris, serves million passengers per year. According to a report in the Le Point magazine, fast-food revenues in France have surpassed traditional restaurant revenues for the first time ever.
In a nutshell, Adam Thurkettle is too big. The thirsty -foot- Englishman from Bury St. Edmunds has been asked not to return to the Nutshell Pub there. Owner Jack Burton said Thurkettle’s frame is simply too big for his bar, known as the smallest pub in Britain. At nearly pounds, Thurkettle takes up too much room in the -foot-by--foot Nutshell, forcing bartenders to turn away paying customers. Thurkettle, , told the Sun he understands the bar’s position: “I love the Nutshell and the regulars are a great bunch—but not many can get in after I arrive.”
A language barrier wasn’t enough to stop retired New Jersey state trooper Scott Johnson from performing his civic duties. When the Frenchtown, N.J., resident drove past a family preparing to float the Delaware River on June , a thought struck him: The river is too high and too fast for anyone to go tubing. So Johnson pulled off the road and returned to the family to warn them. But when he approached and attempted to explain, “No English” was the response he got from the family’s patriarch. After a bit of clumsy communication, Johnson concluded the tourists spoke Russian. “All right, how do I tell this guy—Ah! I’ve got my phone. It’s got Google Translate. I never tried it before,” Johnson told the Hunterdon County Democrat. And Johnson’s translated tale of the recent spate of river deaths did the trick. The Russian family thanked him and moved along.
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THURKETTLE: ANGLIA PRESS AGENCY LTD./REX FEATURES/AP • ILLUSTRATION: KRIEG BARRIE • BURGER KING: CLAUDE PARIS/AP • PHONE: MOHAMMED AL-SHAIKH/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
A woman calling emergency services was understandably tight-lipped when she dialed New Zealand’s equivalent of . The -yearold woman from Dunedin, whom police did not identify, mumbled and groaned through a June call leading operators to believe she was being held captive. When police arrived at her home, they discovered she had confused her medicated lip ointment with a tube of super glue and glued her lips shut. The woman was taken to a nearby hospital, treated, and released.
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7/9/13 5:46 PM
RADAR: NOAA • WHITE-THROATED NEEDLETAIL: DAVID CAMPBELL • ILLUSTRATION: KRIEG BARRI • STAIR TRUCK: PAUL SAKUMA/AP • BEES: THE XERCES SOCIETY FOR INVERTEBRATE CONSERVATION
THURKETTLE: ANGLIA PRESS AGENCY LTD./REX FEATURES/AP • ILLUSTRATION: KRIEG BARRIE • BURGER KING: CLAUDE PARIS/AP • PHONE: MOHAMMED AL-SHAIKH/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
RADAR: NOAA • WHITE-THROATED NEEDLETAIL: DAVID CAMPBELL • ILLUSTRATION: KRIEG BARRI • STAIR TRUCK: PAUL SAKUMA/AP • BEES: THE XERCES SOCIETY FOR INVERTEBRATE CONSERVATION
While temperatures soared on June across the American Southwest, forecasters with the National Weather Service in Texas were trying to solve a mystery. Their weather radar showed what looked like rain clouds north of Austin all the way to Dallas. But they knew from eyewitnesses that there were no clouds to be found—just a scorching sun. So what was causing the splotches of blue and green to pop up on the weather radar? According to scientists for the NWS, the radar was picking up a combination of dirt, pollen, and insects that had clumped into a mass at , feet due to the sweltering heat and northeasterly breeze. According to meteorologists, the insects and particulate matter anomaly caused some afternoon haze, but harmlessly dissipated that evening.
In a scene reminiscent of the TV show Arrested Development, a La Guardia Airport employee escaped the taxiway and drove a stair truck to a nearby pizza parlor on June , reported the New York Post. The blue Southwest Airlines vehicle was designed to be a mobile stairway to allow passengers to get on or off airplanes. And for the record, a spokesman for New York’s Department of Motor Vehicles said the stair truck was not street legal. Meanwhile, a representative of Southwest Airlines said the driver was simply taking the stair truck in for routine maintenance off the grounds of the airport—not stopping in for pizza.
After word spread that a bird watcher had spotted a White-throated Needletail,, the world’s fastest flying bird, ornithologists and amateurs from across the United Kingdom rushed to the Isle of Harris in northern Scotland. And on June —just two days after the first Needletail spotting in the U.K. since —about bird watchers were on hand to spot the rare bird taking flight. But the delight turned quickly to dread. “We were absolutely over the moon and thrilled to see the bird. We watched it for nearly two hours,” British ornithologist John Marchant told the Telegraph. “While we were watching it suddenly it was a bit close to [a wind turbine] and then the blades hit it.” In an instant, the bird was struck from the sky and fell to the ground dead from the windmill’s blades. Windmill turbines each year reportedly kill millions of birds.
Washington State made a big jump down the politically correct path when the state officially banned terms like “freshman,” “fisherman,” and “journeyman plumber” from the government’s lexicon. The state is also changing “his” in all laws to “his or her.” The changes, which began in July, are the product of initiatives by state lawmakers since to strip away gendered language from the state’s statutes. “Freshman” will now be called a “firstyear student,” according to the new law.
Tens of thousands of honeybees accidentally killed by landscapers at a Wilsonville, Ore., Target store in June will not go unremembered. An Oregon activist is planning a July memorial service for the perished pollinators. An estimated , bees died in the Target parking lot after landscapers sprayed blooming European linden trees with insecticide during the very time the trees were offering nectar to local bee populations. Wildlife activist Rozzell Medina told the Los Angeles Times he is organizing the memorial service “not to bury the bees or build little bee coffins” but rather to talk about the nation’s declining bee population.
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Janie B. Cheaney
Learning the hard way Natural law may not be as good a teacher as some Christians think
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KRIEG BARRIE
A once encountered a hungry coyote in the forest. Careless in vigilance, the rabbit had allowed himself to be boxed between a boulder and a log with no way of escape. “Wait!” said the rabbit. “Can’t we find some common ground?” Intrigued, the coyote cocked his head to one side. “We both have to eat,” the rabbit went on. “And we’re both mammals. As members of the mutual mammalian society, wouldn’t it make sense to join forces?” The coyote cocked his head to the other side, appearing to listen as the rabbit went on to explain how, with his superior hearing and the other’s superior sense of smell, they could double their effect and halve their effort—and didn’t nature herself teach cooperation? “Good point,” grunted the coyote as he sat back on his haunches. The rabbit saw an opportunity to edge past those menacing claws, but scarcely had he taken a hop before the coyote swiped him to the ground and sank sharp teeth in his furry neck. “Wait!” choked the rabbit. “I thought you agreed!” “That was then,” said the coyote, and proceeded to tear his prey apart. “Besides,” he remarked, after enjoying his meal, “I’m a carnivore.” Moral: Nature is a lousy teacher, but a brilliant executioner. The last time I remember hearing about “natural law” in the news, it was during the confirmation hearings of Justice Clarence Thomas, whose presumed belief in it was considered a strike against him. Natural law theory claims that certain enduring principles apply to all societies at all times, because they are based either on human nature or on nature’s God. This was the philosophical mainspring of the
Declaration of Independence. But to contemporary legal thinkers, natural law is an outdated disguise for authoritarian principles that have little or no relevance to our time. As man evolves, so must his laws, and what worked for medieval theologians, Reformation pastors, or Enlightenment philosophers won’t stand up to scrutiny now. Is the law not written on their hearts, as Paul says? “For when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law” (Romans :). Orthodox scholar David Bentley Hart doubts that Paul is talking about natural law as we understand it. Nature, says Hart, is limited in her instructional capacities, unable to tell us “that abortion is murder, that lying is wrong, that marriage should be monogamous, that we should value charity above personal profit, and that it is wicked (as well as extremely discourteous) to eat members of that tribe that lives over in the next valley.” Those strictures are deeply embedded in cultural assumptions, not nature, and cultural assumptions change. Especially after decades of being hammered by relativism. Christians may have underestimated the degree that moral standards rely on revelation rather than intuition, and that’s why we’re stunned at how quickly they have eroded. We can’t even conduct a rational argument, for between carnivores and herbivores there appears to be little common ground. But one thing doesn’t change about us, and perhaps it’s a distant echo of natural law: However virtue “evolves,” most human beings want to feel virtuous. The sexual revolution of the s was often called the New Morality (even though old fogeys at church insisted on calling it the old immorality). Some of my Facebook friends proudly “Stand with Wendy” Davis (the state senator who filibustered the Texas legislature to prevent passage of a late-term abortion ban) and applaud grossly expanded food-stamp benefits as “compassionate.” Justice Anthony Kennedy, rather than cite legal grounds for ruling the Defense of Marriage Act unconstitutional, chose to castigate DOMA on moral grounds. But, “Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil” (Isaiah :). Nature’s God declares that “the two shall be one” and “he who does not work shall not eat” and “you shall not murder.” The unraveling of our society proves Him true: if nature fails at instruction, she’ll gladly dole out consequences. A
Email: jcheaney@worldmag.com
7/9/13 9:16 AM
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Reviews Movies & TV > Books > Q&A > Music
Everyday dystopia CBS Broadcasting Inc.
TV: Under the Dome succeeds by tapping into the collective fear that society is crumbling by megan basham
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There’s no question that CBS’s summer gambit, Under the Dome, is so far a rousing success. Its premiere episode drew 13.5 million viewers—more than any summer drama debut since 1992, a time before a wealth of original cable programming changed the broadcasting game, when audiences were offered little besides reruns to watch until September. With DVR and on-demand viewings added in, Dome’s opening numbers grew to nearly 17 million, and its second outing held up unusually well, managing to retain 87 percent of its original audience. The show has performed so strongly, its early ratings are second only to one other new program of the 2012-
Email: mbasham@worldmag.com
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2013 television season— NBC’s Revolution. It’s impossible not to note the striking similarities between the networks’ two biggest winners this year. Shocking, unexplainable events suddenly change everything about life as the characters know it. Modern conveniences like electricity and mass communication are no longer available. An interim government arises that, instead of protecting its citizens, uses the crisis as an opportunity to impose a brutish, totalitarian order. In Revolution’s case, the great power outage descends on the entire world; in Under the Dome, the damage is contained to the tiny town of Chester’s Mill, Maine. It suddenly finds itself trapped by an invisible force field. But in both cases individuals must quickly adapt to a primitive new world or become one of its casualties.
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Reviews > Movies & TV
Box Office Top 10
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DOCUMENTARY
20 Feet from Stardom by Emily Whitten
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Her voice trembling, eyes watering, Merry Clayton admits, “I felt that if I just gave my heart to what I was doing, I would automatically be a star.” From Ray Charles to Sheryl Crow to Elton John, musical stardom has afforded many pop icons a measure of earthly glory. But in this documentary, the spotlight finally hits some of the 20th century’s greatest back-up singers like Clayton—people you’ve heard, but never heard of. Why haven’t the African-American women featured here become lead singers? “It’s a bit of a walk,” Bruce Springsteen explains, “that walk to the front is complicated.” The hurdles don’t include lack of talent. Interviews with Sting, Springsteen, Bette Midler, and other stars testify to the abilities of these women. Plus, a soundtrack of pop/ rock classics gives viewers firsthand evidence. Merry Clayton’s story of recording vocals for “Gimme Shelter” by the Rolling Stones—in her pajamas in the dead of night no less—takes a spine-tingling turn when her voice track is isolated and played for a newly impressed Mick Jagger. So what kept them from realizing their dreams? Producers, for one. Darlene Love explains how Beatles producer Phil Spector recorded her voice, and then—against his word—released it on another artist’s record. But most of these artists aren’t quite sure why their solo careers flopped, and the critics aren’t that insightful. Several point to a plantation mentality, but neglect the possibility of flaws in costume, material, or timing. What’s clear, though, is that the faith of these women helped shape the sound of a generation: Nearly all grew up as ministers’ daughters in call and response church choirs. While this PG-13 film occasionally flounders on the sex, drug, and rock ’n’ roll cliché (including foul language), it also hints at a grander tale. “God gave me this talent, and I intend to use it,” Darlene Love says of her success. And those like Clayton who keep singing from the shadows offer hope of a higher call and response.
*Reviewed by world
7/10/13 9:16 AM
Pacific Rim: WARNER BROS. PICTURES • Despicable Me 2: Universal Pictures
With so many of the ystopian stories these days d presenting grand-scale, upper-echelon scenarios, Dome’s focus on the small dramas of everyday people comes as a welcome change. There are still great power struggles, but the fact that they occur between the local used car salesman and the deputy sheriff make them much more relatable. Yet while the show wisely maintains the Anywhere, U.S.A., scope of the Stephen King novel it’s based on, it unfortunately trades several of King’s distinctive characters for boring, modern stereotypes—a hip lesbian couple instead of a surprisingly Republican newspaper reporter and a rebellious, black-lipsticked teen instead of a drug-addicted single mother desperate to do the right things for her child. The show suffers for the changes as the characters tend to For the weekend of july 5-7 speak and act according to Box Office Mojo exactly as you’d cautions: Quantity of sexual (S), violent predict them to. (V), and foul-language (L) content on a 0-10 Yet despite the scale, with 10 high, from kids-in-mind.com producers’ inexpliS V L cable decision to 1̀ Despicable Me 2* PG.............3 3 2 populate their 2̀ The Lone Ranger* PG-13.......3 7 3 version of Chester’s 3̀ The Heat r...................................6 6 10 Mill with more 4̀ Monsters University* g...... 1 3 1 generic players, 5̀ World War Z* PG-13................. 1 7 4 Dome is well 6̀ White House Down* PG-13....3 6 5 plotted and well7̀ Man of Steel* PG-13................3 6 3 paced, and makes 8̀ Kevin Hart: Let Me Explain r........................ not rated for mildly diverting 9̀ This Is the End r.......................8 7 10 10 Now You See Me PG-13.........4 5 5 `
20 Feet from Stardom: Graham Willoughby/Tremolo Productions • Under the Dome: CBS Broadcasting Inc.
small- screen fare. However, its offensive portrayal of self-professed Christians (it’s not enough that the churchgoers are hypocrites— they’re drug dealing, murderous, egomaniacal hypocrites) will likely keep many believers away, along with sexual situations and explicit violence. But while they may not want to watch the show, those interested in engaging the culture and finding fresh opportunities to point to God’s truth shouldn’t be so quick to write off its appeal. What Dome, Revolution, and the great zombie masses seem to be tapping into is an overwhelming escalation of collective fear. Everywhere you look these days you find evidence that a pervasive sense that society as we know it is crumbling, while law and order fall to the wayside, has taken hold of Americans. It should come as no surprise then that our feeling that the ground is shifting beneath our feet, able to fall out completely at any moment, is more and more reflected in our e ntertainment.
MOVIE
Pacific Rim by Stephanie Perrault
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Pacific Rim: WARNER BROS. PICTURES • Despicable Me 2: Universal Pictures
20 Feet from Stardom: Graham Willoughby/Tremolo Productions • Under the Dome: CBS Broadcasting Inc.
If you enjoy mash-ups, you might like Guillermo del Toro’s latest monster flick, Pacific Rim, a mix of Godzilla, Transformers, and Total Recall. The movie, like all self-respecting apocalyptic films, takes place in the not-so-distant future. Aliens in the form of gargantuan monsters have invaded Earth through a fissure in the Pacific Ocean. They’re crunching through coastal cities as a kid would crunch through a Tootsie Pop. To stop them, the world joins forces and finances to build colossal robots called Jaegers who do hand-to-hand combat with the sea monsters known as Kaiju. The Jaegers are controlled internally by two pilots whose brains are wired together, allowing them to perfectly synchronize their movements and thoughts. The technology temporarily enables the pilots to effectively battle the Kaiju, but eventually the beasts start adapting and the Jaegers become less effective. The world’s governing body—the good ol’ UN—decides to shut down the Jaeger program. The head of the program, Captain Pentecost (Idris Elba), decides to make one last-ditch effort to save the Jaegers and close the Kaiju’s portal into our world. Although intense fighting (and scary shots of blue-acidspewing Kaiju) takes up much of this PG-13 movie, it’s robots, not humans who get ripped apart, so it’s not particularly gory. The Kaiju are terrifying and could be nightmare-inducing for younger children, but there’s very little profanity. There’s also very little plot or character development, but it doesn’t appear that del Toro was going for that. Pacific Rim is all about superhuman beings fighting beastly sea creatures seeking to destroy humanity—a reliable story concept used to terrify and entertain since the dawn of time.
See all our movie reviews at worldmag.com/movies
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MOVIE
Despicable Me 2 by Stephanie Perrault
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What do you get when you combine madcap antics, banana-colored clones, and a plot that affirms traditional family values? A lot of money. And that’s exactly what Universal Pictures is getting from Despicable Me 2, rated PG for rude humor and mild action. Although the plot is not as inventive and the humor not as fresh as the first Despicable, the minion capers will delight young viewers, and the strong emphasis on family values and the inescapable necessity of a mother and father will buoy the spirits of accompanying adults. The story continues the tale of Gru, the criminal mastermind turned doting father (voiced perfectly by Steve Carell), who lays aside his nefarious ways to raise his adopted daughters (Margo, Edith, and Agnes) and run a legitimate jam and jelly business. Gru’s newfound peace is upended when Lucy Wilde (Kristen Wiig), a recruiter for the AVL—Anti-Villain League—pops into his life with a lipstick taser. The AVL needs Gru’s underworld expertise to unearth the identity of an unknown villain, posing as an entrepreneur at the gleaming Paradise Mall. Grudgingly, Gru agrees to go undercover with Lucy as a cupcake shop owner and manages to fall in love with her in the process. Meanwhile, he’s able to put the kibosh on a world-domination plot, save his minions, and show viewers the importance of having a mother and a father. Agnes loves Gru, who works hard to raise his girls, but when she’s required to memorize a Mother’s Day poem for school, she confesses to her dad that she often pretends she has a mom. In the final scene, Agnes’ world is finally made complete.
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Reviews > Books
‘Out of my mind’
Author recounts his journey from Islam to Christ
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L S’ Summoned from the Margin: Homecoming of an African (Eerdmans, ) is a wonderfully evocative memoir of moving from childhood Islam in Gambia to a faith in Christ that many churches feared to recognize. Sanneh, born in , is now a Yale history professor who studies world missions. He describes how parts of Africa suffer from “a state of general resignation that the collective imagination attributes to the will of God. … Being unemployed is the will of God.” Sanneh describes the consequences of foreign aid: “The expectation of financial gifts from America created something of a feeding frenzy. All stories had the mercenary ambition of establishing relationship. … The closer the relationship with a would-be helper, the higher the sense of entitlement, and the more readily aroused the spirit of resentment.” In a sense, the hope of Western help brings out the worst tendencies already present in the culture: “Although people value relationships, they are not much curious about personal details and experiences. In fact, their interest seems to be motivated by hope of reward. Someone will greet you or offer you a gift only to turn round and ask you to do them a favor. … There is no word in the language for thank you.” Instead,
to the African a stage of life brimming with assets of childhood enrichment. The African child lives in a close, crowded world, a world teeming with faces and sounds and movements.” But he doesn’t defend his buddies who grew up to “understand religion as what is useful … a charm of good fortune, the sacred text a tablet of manners, customs, and duties, and blessing is material benefit, what people call nafaa. You have children so they may be an answer to prayer as nafaa to you, as ‘a bar of soap’ to you, not so that they may fulfill themselves in their own right.” Since America may be on its way to legalizing polygamy, men would do well to remember Sanneh’s description of the results: “the husband’s weakened influence; individually or in concert, the co-wives are the prime movers in the domestic sphere. … At any given point in the week or month, the man is on a time ration in the house of one wife or another … a gypsy conjugal life. … It is rare that a father would know the birthdays of his children, let
‘The expectation of financial gifts from America created something of a feeding frenzy.’ people commonly say “a-baraka, derived from the Arabic, [which] means ‘may you be favored,’ in the sense of ‘may you do me more favors.’ Separately and together the terms are fundamentally terms of self-interest.” Sanneh corrects cultural misunderstandings: “What to a Western eye looks like childhood of deprivation, is
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alone be at home to celebrate them— which home, exactly?” Once Sanneh becomes an adult believer in Christ, his memoir has a pathetic side: No church wants him, because the rare Christian converts in Muslim communities “keep their faith quiet. … This arrangement gives Muslims the confidence that they hold the high
ground vis-a-vis Christians; after all, only an inferior religion would agree to such terms. … Churches were required to collaborate with Muslims in maintaining the sealed borders with Islam, and even to turning a blind eye to Christians crossing over.” In the United States during the s and s many churches also were reluctant to have him: Since Sanneh took the physical resurrection of Jesus seriously, one minister “appeared to bristle at the thought that I did not seem to be completely reconciled to the modernist project in theology.” Sanneh wanted to study theology, but liberal churchmen told him he should learn about feeding the hungry—and some conservatives were racist. Recently, when Muslim friends asked Sanneh about conversion, he replied, “You must be out of your mind to contemplate such a thing. … I would not wish on anyone the exposure of conversion compounded by the ambivalence of church and Christian groups.” Why, then, did Sanneh become a Christian? “Because I was out of my mind.” Amen. A
Email: molasky@worldmag.com
7/9/13 11:09 AM
KRIEG BARRIE
BY MARVIN OLASKY
NOTABLE BOOKS
Four character-building picture books > reviewed by .
Steam Train, Dream Train Sherri Duskey Rinker Sherri Rinker follows up her surprise bestseller, Site, with another Goodnight, Goodnight, Construction Site boy-pleasing bedtime book. What boy doesn’t love trains? The pages show a furry and scaly crew loading boxcars, reefers, gondolas, and hoppers with dream freight (i.e., paint, sand, toys, ice cream) before their train steams rhythmically into the sunset. The irresistible rhymes will lull the most sleep-resistant child, but a subtle work ethic underpins both of Rinker’s picture books. Whether busy construction vehicles or busy yard crew, her characters put in an honest day’s labor before settling in for a well-deserved rest. Tom Lichtenheld joins Rinker again for this second outing, his rich sunset colors casting a glow over bedtime.
Mary Wrightly, So Politely Shirin Yim Bridges Mary is one of those quiet little girls you’re always telling to speak up! So far she hasn’t had much to speak up about: As an extra-polite child, grown-ups and peers alike tend to treat her as courteously as she treats them. But occasionally there comes a time to assert oneself, especially when the perfect gift for one’s baby brother is at stake. The simple story shows when it may be necessary to raise one’s voice, such as when others get caught up in their own business and aren’t paying the attention they should. But even yelling can be done politely. The illustrations are soft, bright, and deeply textured.
Building Our House Jonathan Bean
The author wasn’t yet born when his parents and two siblings left the city to build their own house in the country. For five years (here condensed to one and a half) they homesteaded in an old Airstream trailer while digging, rock-laying, flooring, framing, plumbing, and roofing their dream home from the basement up. Even the little ones pitched in where they could. Young builders will be fascinated with the process captured between the two endpapers: one showing empty fields and the other the newly finished house, already looking as if it belongs. This book is a labor of love from a son who honors his parents and their self-reliant, can-do spirit.
KRIEG BARRIE
Scaredy Squirrel Goes Camping Melanie Watt Scaredy Squirrel, as the reader will guess, is afraid of lots of things. In this latest outing of the series, his fear list includes loud noises, skunks, the dark, penguins, and zippers. So camping is not a favorite activity, but in keeping with the summertime spirit he decides to watch TV shows about camping. Problem is, he can’t plug in his new TV, and the closest outlet happens to be in the nearby campground. So he takes an outdoor expedition with an extra-long extension cord. It will come as no surprise that Scaredy changes his mind about camping after an adventure in the wilderness. Preschoolers may find some reassurance about their own fears.
To see more book news and reviews, go to worldmag.com/books
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SPOTLIGHT How do you know whether you’re sad or depressed? How can doctors tell the difference? What is manic depression and is it the same as bipolar disorder? In Good Mood Bad Mood (Shepherd Press, ), medical doctor Charles Hodges lays out current theories, explains how medications work, and shows how subjective the diagnostic process is. Using examples from his practice, Hodges shows how doctors and patients can unwittingly make things worse by using medications to diagnose problems. He asks important questions about the role of genetics and whether people can change. As he explores the difference between ordinary sadness and depression, Hodges shows the role that worldview plays in interpreting events. He says that as we’ve become a more secular nation, “we have lost the assurance that our current setbacks are temporary and our future eternal.” Without a biblical perspective, we fail to see how God uses sorrows to change us. —Susan Olasky
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7/9/13 11:10 AM
Reviews > Q&A
A decade’s dream Pastor and author DAVE SWAVELY saw the power of perseverance and prayer in the release of his new novel BY MARVIN OLASKY
through the way you’re using words more than when you just talk, is good for my trade as a pastor. Fiction published in a secular market gives me the opportunity to make connections that I wouldn’t otherwise make with people who are uninitiated to the Christian faith. Which calling came fi rst: pastoring or writing? When I
was a little boy, I began to write. If somebody would have asked me even when I was very young, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” I would have said, “A writer,” and I actually also said, even, “A novelist.” I majored in creative writing. I didn’t believe I was called to be a pastor until I became one after college.
ART COX/PATRICK HENRY COLLEGE
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D S is the pastor of a Pennsylvania church, the father of seven, and the author or co-author of several nonfiction books and one new novel, Silhouette. Silhouette Pastor and writer. Do those two callings go together? The discipline of writing, having to think
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7/8/13 10:32 AM
ART COX/PATRICK HENRY COLLEGE
Let’s talk about your futuristic action/mystery novel, Silhouette. It’s published by a big New York house, Macmillan, and doesn’t have much about Christianity— although the main character is starting to sense that he’s missing something. He’s being exposed to Christians, liking some of the things he sees but mostly disliking Christian ideas—yet Providence behind the scenes is working in his life. It’s set in a postquake San Francisco, which has become a city-state ruled by a semi-benevolent dictator, so it and the draft of your sequel have some violence and sexual (not explicit) situations. Any good literature will contain both the sacred and profane, because life is full of both. Authors get shot at from both directions. In the Christian publishing world you can’t have too much of the profane or they won’t publish you. In the secular publishing world you can’t have too much of the sacred, or they won’t publish you or they’ll try to cut it out. It’s hard to write about the sacred and profane, to have a place for it to be published and read in today’s market, and also to do it in a way honoring to the Lord, where the profane serves the purpose of showing how great the sacred is.
Email: molasky@worldmag.com
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The bad news makes us understand more our desperate need for the good news? Experiencing the bad news through the characters shows how great the solution is and how much it’s needed. I won’t give away the plot, but I do want to ask how you found the publisher. I was in the year , writing nonfiction and ghostwriting. I figured if I’m ever going to write a novel, I
about it. If the Lord wants it published, He will do it. If not, I won’t be writing fiction, because I don’t have time with my big family and my growing church to do more than that.” And the result? Six said no. Three never responded. Lo and behold, someone from the William Morris Agency wrote back to me and said, “I’d like to see the rest of the book.” I sent it to him. He wrote back to me and said, “I’ve been
someone else in Manhattan who likes my novel enough to champion it?” So he took it with him. He stayed in the film industry and all through the s he had it, but wasn’t able to sell it. Did you ever hear from him during that decade? At the beginning, he tried a few publishers and told me, “They said no,” or, “They still have it and didn’t say anything.” Eventually we lost touch. I not
‘It’s hard to write about the sacred and profane, to have a place for it to be published and read in today’s market, and also to do it in a way honoring to the Lord, where the profane serves the purpose of showing how great the sacred is.’ Swavely might as well do it now. I used every free moment I had and produced this novel. It’s changed considerably since then, because editing is very helpful. There’s a tip for you Patrick Henry students who want to write—you need to be edited and you need to listen to editors, because they do help a lot. Yes, listen to editors! Yes! I wrote it and was busy with a growing family and a growing church, so I went to the library, pulled out the big book of literary agencies, and picked out nine literary agencies that said they represented material like I had in the novel. I looked for one more and came across the William Morris Agency, which represents all the biggest stars in Hollywood. I chuckled, wrote down its address as my th, and said, “That’s it. I’ll send out cover letters and chapters to the , and pray
reading unsolicited manuscripts here for two years: Yours is my favorite book I’ve ever read. I would like to represent you.” I said, “Great! Let’s go for it!” Author’s dream come true? A month later, the same man called me back and said, “I was all excited about selling your book and a series and so forth from it, but I just got offered a great job in the film industry, and I’ve been hoping to get into the film industry, and I’m going to do that. I’m sorry; I won’t be a literary agent anymore.” Not the end of the story, I suspect. He said, “I could take the book with me and see if I could try to sell it here and there, on the side, or we could try to find you another agent.” I said—trusting in the Lord and knowing that there’s not much I can do to make this happen—“Take it with you.” I figured, “What are the chances I’m going to find
only gave up on seeing my novel ever published, but gave up on all writing: I don’t have a huge church and I haven’t been to heaven and back, so marketing staffs vetoed my proposals. But this is not the end. At a conference I heard Gregg Harris ask the audience, “Do any of you have talents, gifts, dreams you’ve stopped pursuing because you’ve given up on them? Let me encourage you: God is able and He can make things happen. Don’t give up.” So I sent out emails to everybody I knew in the publishing business, Christian and secular, and said to the Lord, “If you want something to happen, please make it happen. If nothing happens, I’m content: I trust you for that.” I got one back from that agent I told you about, who had just been hired by Macmillan. So Silhouette came out. A
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7/8/13 10:34 AM
Gospel pass
Martha Redbone and Mavis Staples sing truth with beauty and impunity BY ARSENIO ORTEZA
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REDBONE: WILL MAUPIN • STAPLES: CHRIS STRONG PHOTOGRAPHY
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P has its downsides, but one upside is that historically oppressed nonwhites seem to have carte blanche to sing with impunity about the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit and thus provide sacred song with an ark in which to ride out the secularist flood. Exhibit A among noteworthy recent examples of this felicitous double standard is The Garden of Love: Songs of William Blake (Blackfeet Productions/ CD Baby) by the Martha Redbone Roots Project. Had the album been sung in a Southern accent to country-music accompaniment, critics would no doubt find in Blake couplets such as “I
am in God’s presence night and day, / And He never turns His face away” (“I Rose Up at the Dawn of Day”) and “He gives to us His joy / That our grief He may destroy” (“On Another’s Sorrow”) proof of the singer’s commitment to promulgating a culturally superior Eurocentric hegemony or something similarly inane. But coming from Redbone, who traces her bloodlines to three Indian tribes and at least one African country, such material gets a pass—either because the ancestors of the oppressed singing the songs of their ancestors’ oppressors are providing longoverdue comeuppance Redbone or because the oppressed can hardly be expected to achieve overnight the enlightenment to see through religion and other superstitious nonsense. That the white male and Nitty Gitty Dirt Band alumnus John McEuen co-composed melodies and helmed the production console only goes to show how fitful progress can be. Whatever. At least this time what’s getting affirmed actually deserves affirmation. Unlike Allen Ginsberg, whose musical renditions of Blake poems reduced Blake to a shambolic hedonist, and Staples William Bolcom, whose
Grammy-winning efforts found him essentially throwing everything at the poems to see what would stick, Redbone takes, and for the most part leaves, Blake at face value, remaking herself in his image at least as much as she can’t help remaking him in hers. What is her image? That of a euphoniously soulful songstress most comfortable emoting from within an acoustic—yea, even old-timey—instrumentation to which folk-festival attendees and Pentecostal and/or Baptist all-day diners on the ground could gladly lift their voices in song. And speaking of picnics, Redbone’s gorgeous, autoharp-enriched rendition of “The Fly” is just the humbling thing to keep one demographic from viewing another from the vantage point of anything like a high horse. Exhibit B in the racial doublestandard sweepstakes is Mavis Staples’ One True Vine (ANTI), which, like her album You Are Not Alone, finds Staples working in sympathetic collaboration with Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy. Together they sift soulful wheat from bluesy chaff and turn it into gospel gold. Who, for instance, knew that Funkadelic’s album Maggot Brain contained “Can You Get to That,” which cuts to the gospel quick by proclaiming, “Well, I read an old quotation in a book just yesterday / Said ‘Gonna reap just what you sow, / The debts you make you have to pay’”? Or that Tweedy had a gospel original like “Every Step” in him? Or that Nick Lowe had penned a song called “Far Celestial Shore,” the lyrics of which recall no one so much as, well, William Blake? “Laughter too is everywhere,” writes Lowe of heaven. A
Email: aorteza@worldmag.com
7/9/13 4:48 PM
HANDOUT
Reviews > Music
NOTABLE CDs
New or recent jazz releases > reviewed by
Within a Song John Abercrombie Quartet John Abercrombie has been a jazz guitarist’s jazz guitarist for over years, and this tribute to the music of his formative years (covers of songs composed and/or made famous by Ornette Coleman, John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Bill Evans, and Sonny Rollins predominate) doesn’t disappoint. Even Abercrombie’s original compositions belong. The album does, however, concede the spotlight to the tenor saxophonist Joe Lovano, whose breathlike playing imbues the songs with a sensuous intimacy beyond the scope of even the most sensitively picked, electrically amplified strings. Inspiration: A Tribute to Nat King Cole George Benson Nat “King” Cole doesn’t need any more tributes, and even if this album does become a “hit” in any sense of that now practically meaningless word, it won’t return Benson to household-name status. Perhaps it’s Benson’s likely realization of both facts that explains how relaxed and playful he sounds singing these staples of Western pop culture, many of which have a life apart from their ever having been recorded by Cole. Most relaxed and playful of all: the recording of the -year-old Benson singing “Mona Lisa.”
Quartette Humaine Bob James & David Sanborn You’ve got to love a song titled “You Better Not Go to College,” even if it lacks lyrics to make explicit its implicitly anti-leviathan sentiments. It’s ironic too in that it draws attention to this music’s structural similarities to that of the Dave Brubeck Quartet—which made its reputation on university campuses. Well, colleges have declined and fallen a lot since then. James and Sanborn, however, have gotten better with age. On the evidence of these nine cuts, they might never be mistaken for mere smoothies again.
HANDOUT
REDBONE: WILL MAUPIN • STAPLES: CHRIS STRONG PHOTOGRAPHY
Somewhere Keith Jarrett, Gary Peacock, Jack DeJohnette The liner photos document the extent to which this piano-bass-drums trio has aged, but the music— recorded live in —doesn’t. “Grown” or “matured” maybe, but even those adjectives feel ill-suited to describe what’s essentially a pleasure fest, a chance for each virtuoso to abandon the burdens of his solo career and to have fun exploring and expanding the inner life of standards (Mercer, Arlen, Bernstein, Bernstein/Sondheim). Meanwhile, continued kudos to Peacock and DeJohnette for putting up with Jarrett’s kazoo-like vocal noises.
To see more music news and reviews, go to worldmag.com/music
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SPOTLIGHT ECM Records has been good to fans of the Keith Jarrett Trio in recent months—first, by releasing the live-in-Switzerland Somewhere (see left) and, second, by releasing the latest projects by the trio’s double bassist Gary Peacock and drummer Jack DeJohnette. Anyone who thinks Peacock and DeJohnette sound unfettered with Jarrett should hear how free they sound when they’re calling the shots. Peacock’s Azure is a collection of duets with the pianist Marilyn Crispell. Without drums or any other external timekeeping, the duo hits upon a nimbly percussive pitter-patter that at its most staccato sounds like musical rain and at its most fluid sounds like musical patience. On DeJohnette’s Special Edition Edition, however, a reissuing of four highly regarded albums DeJohnette recorded with a rotating cast of clarinetists and saxophonists between and , loud-fast rules. Interestingly, given all the drumming, wailing, and blowing, it’s DeJohnette’s lyrical piano on “Pastel Rhapsody” that’s most special of all.
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7/9/13 4:46 PM
Mindy Belz
A lesson from Iraq
The Middle East needs less talk about democracy and more about good government
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the region’s majority, could barely risk it either. In elections held June , the Kurds won of council seats, making important gains against lead Sunni parties (including radicals and Muslim Brotherhood affiliates). Christians lost ground—moving from three seats on the council to one—but competed across parties this time rather than in their own religious parties only. Across Iraq there’s other good news. Oil production is rising, with a new pipeline through Jordan in the works. Iraqi Airlines took possession of its first of Boeing aircraft, with the rest due later this summer. For two years Iraq’s GDP has been growing at a rate of nearly percent. And consumer price inflation, which hit a high of percent in , dropped to percent in . Faily is right to acknowledge, “It hasn’t been easy.” But after decades of dictatorship, three wars, international sanctions, and the deaths and displacement of millions of Iraqis, he can also legitimately say, “Iraq has begun to build a multiethnic, multiparty democracy with respect for the rule of law.” May it continue, and may violence decrease. May it also give policymakers, political and military leaders, and the rest of us encouragement to look more closely at the Middle East, to see beyond the headlines and hashtags. It’s not all bombs and bloodletting. As we should have learned in Iraq and now face with Egypt, democracy is more than free and fair elections. (Christians living in America should well understand that liberty depends on so much more!) We should perhaps talk less about democracy and more about good government; less about Middle Easterners getting to vote and more about equality, rule by consent, building institutions that protect and include everyone under the law. And above all, we should recognize that if the United States still has a lot to learn in the region, the lesson from Iraq is that it has a lot to teach, too. A NEW ERA: Iraqi security forces show their inkstained fingers outside a polling station in Ramadi.
AZHAR SHALLAL/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
L F man in Middle East politics these days—an optimist. Calling this month for a “new era” in U.S.Iraq relations, the new Iraqi ambassador to the United States says “though most Americans probably believe that Iraqis are fed up with the U.S., the truth is that Iraqis appreciate what the U.S. has done and are looking for more U.S. involvement.” Come again? Not more sacrifice of blood and treasure, he wrote in a July Wall Street Journal op-ed, but “more diplomatic, political, trade, investment and economic partnership.” Truth be told, the -year-old diplomat has reason to be buoyant. For all the bloodletting and political upheaval in the region, good things are happening in the one place in the Arab world where the United States over the last decade has spent its blood and treasure. In late June the UN Security Council voted unanimously to remove Iraq from Chapter of the UN Charter. That means the end at long last to UN sanctions imposed on the country following the invasion of Kuwait by Saddam Hussein. It means longstanding issues with Kuwait—missing people, missing documents, destroyed property—largely have been resolved. Of billion owed Kuwait in reparations, Iraq has paid all but billion. Iraq may join again in global trade and finance, in associations, and in cultural exchanges. And take a look at the most recent provincial elections in Iraq. While terrorist attacks in some areas drew headlines, here’s the other news: All political parties in Iraq have accepted that elections, particularly local elections, are the means to power sharing and change. This is a sign of democracy sinking its roots. Or, as Faily put it, “Iraqis are developing a culture of democracy.” Take embattled Nineveh Province. When I reported from there in ahead of the last provincial elections, insurgents had killed Nineveh council members leading up to elections. The rest had bodyguards and carried their own weapons. When I met with the governor of the province, he’d just escaped three bombing attempts, and just attended the funeral for his assistant. Christians, who represented a solid faction in Nineveh, could scarcely run for office. Kurds, long
Email: mbelz@worldmag.com
7/9/13 4:41 PM
st. mary’s college of maryland
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How Are Music and Math Connected? On the surface, music and mathematics seem like polar opposites. Music expresses profound emotions, while mathematics is the model of pure reasoning. But dig a little deeper, and you’ll see the disciplines are linked in fundamental and fascinating ways. In the 12 lively lectures of How Music and Mathematics Relate, you’ll gain new perspective on these two shining achievements of human culture. Taught by David Kung, an award-winning professor of mathematics at St. Mary’s College of Maryland—and a skilled musician—these informative lectures are packed with musical examples from the likes of Bach, Mozart, and Tchaikovsky. You’ll discover how mathematics informs every step of the musicmaking process, what goes on inside your brain as it interprets the sounds you hear, and so much more. CREDIT
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lecture titles 1. Overtones—Symphony in a Single Note 2. Timbre—Why Each Instrument Sounds Different 3. Pitch and Auditory Illusions 4. How Scales Are Constructed 5. How Scale Tunings and Composition Coevolved 6. Dissonance and Piano Tuning 7. Rhythm—From Numbers to Patterns 8. Transformations and Symmetry 9. Self-Reference from Bach to Gödel 10. Composing with Math— Classical to Avant-Garde 11. The Digital Delivery of Music 12. Math, Music, and the Mind
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7/8/13 9:22 AM
HOPE
Introducing the 2013 Hope Award for Effective Compassion reg
I
recently spent a night at an Atlantaarea Hyatt that displayed a basket of apples just inside the entrance and promised to “satisfy all your cravings.” That’s a sensational guarantee offered each guest, particularly because our
cravings have been disordered ever since one long-ago day in the Garden. The serpent, pretending to own Hotel
Eden, told Eve to bite into a piece of fruit
and satisfy a craving she apparently had: “You will be like God, knowing good and evil.” Ever since then various religions have proposed ways to handle cravings. Theravada Buddhism’s recruiters say to potential monks, We’ll train you so you have no cravings. Radical Islam’s recruiters say to suicide bombers, Satisfy your
cravings to kill (and then have sex). 34
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7/8/13 12:03 PM
PE
sion regional winners
Christianity, though, tells of the one Person who had rightly ordered cravings, so He did not sin, and was even willing to die to save others. Ever since then, the best stories have echoed that great story and understood that selfsacrifice is noble and our own cravings often are not—except for one, the often-suppressed desire to know God. That’s why my heroes tend to be people who enrich themselves not with material goods but by sacrificing themselves for others, particularly widows, orphans, prisoners, aliens, and others among the poor. For the eighth straight year, WORLD is honoring those generally forgotten heroes by sponsoring (with the help of a generous donor) the Hope Award for Effective Compassion. Starting in January readers nominated povertyfighting ministries that are explicitly Christian, local rather than national, dependent on donations rather than
by MARVIN OLASKY photo by tiffany owens
government grants, and experienced in offering challenging, personal, and spiritual help. In the spring our reporters eyeballed regional finalists. Over the next two months we’ll feature articles profiling the West, Midwest, South, and Northeast winners and runners-up. We don’t claim that these winners are the best: They’re good, but not necessarily better than others. We chose them because they show what some Christians do and what more could do: They’re not big operations that demand huge resources. The work they do is very hard, but simple enough
that others could go and do likewise. Regional winners, along with an international winner, will receive $4,000 each, plus national publicity. In October, readers will be able to vote online for the ministry that most appeals to them: About 8,000 readers have voted (one person, one vote) in each of the past two years. The ministry receiving the most votes will receive a total of $25,000. I hope you’ll pray for our first regional duo on the next seven pages: a California ministry to single moms and an Arizona rescue mission on the Mexican border …
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Hope Award for Ef fective Com passion
Parent practicum C West Regional winner
My Safe Harbor helps single mothers break the dysfunctional cycle of broken homes
by Angela Lu in Anaheim, Calif.
photos by Tiffany Owens
GODSEND: Becky Ahlberg (left) with Guadalupe Flores and her son David.
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hatty Hispanic women spoon chicken soup with chickpeas and veggies into plastic bowls, topping it with crushed tortilla chips, cilantro, and radishes. They pull up chairs and dig into dinner, laughing and talking over the night’s lesson on how to discipline manipulative children. For these and other single moms, My Safe Harbor (MSH) is a godsend, and one that Christians in other cities could readily replicate. When asked what she liked most about MSH’s year-long Strong Families Institute course, Virginia Lopez ran to another room and handed me a stack of her drawings. Before: The profile of a head in black. After: The same profile in color, with cogs turning in the brain. Before: A dying tree with leaves falling. After: A tree with new life and fruit growing. Page after page of carefully drawn beforeand-afters, depicting Lopez’s transformed life. She said she learned what her strengths and weaknesses are, and realized that if she doesn’t know herself she can’t help her family. The dozen women around her nodded in agreement, relating to her not just as lowincome, Hispanic single mothers, but as women who feel they lack control over their lives—and desire change. MSH shows women, many abused by men or despairing over gang-banging children, how they can survive tumultuous waters and ultimately dock with Jesus Christ. MSH executive director Becky Ahlberg, who calls herself the “meanest mom in the world,” teaches these women (median age: 29) the basic skills of setting consistent bedtimes for their children, paying bills on
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time, and taking responsibility for their actions. For women who come from generations of broken families and come to the program via referral from governmental social services offices, many of these lessons are brand-new. The women are not unusual: While most people associate Anaheim with Disneyland and its sports teams, Ahlberg knows it as the city with the densest gang population in Orange County. Christians who teach dejected single moms that they are part of Christ’s big story of redemption can help change the lives of both the moms and their kids. In 2008 Ahlberg and a group from Anaheim First Christian Church (AFCC) learned from local school principals, police officers, and social service managers that gang issues are symptoms. The root is broken homes: The official story these days is that single-parent homes are just as good as two-parent homes, yet three out of four children who join gangs grew up in a singleparent household. Ahlberg says, “We have a societal problem with talking about it without blaming the mother. All the help goes to the children who are at risk because that’s where the money is. It’s not as sexy and short-term to help mothers: It’s a long-range issue to break that dysfunctional cycle.” For instance, when Leticia Sanchez arrived at MSH in 2011, she was depressed, struggling with two out-ofcontrol teenagers, and a verbally abusive boyfriend. Talking to the women around her, she found she wasn’t alone in her troubles, and kept coming back for the community. She joined the first Strong Families Institute class, where Ahlberg taught the students through a translator about how to discipline their children. Sanchez gradually realized she was too aggressive with her children, often yelling and hitting them rather than explaining to them the consequences of their actions. “I found out that I raised my children the way I knew from my parents, but that’s not the right way,” Sanchez said in Spanish. “Instead I need to discipline them, communicate with them, and spend time with them.”
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y Safe Harbor shares a building with the statefunded Children Bureau’s Family Resource Center (FRC). The two now work closely together under one roof. FRC is only allowed to work with clients for up to 90 days, so once their time is up FRC sends the women to My Safe Harbor. When the women need diapers or court advocates in cases of domestic violence, My Safe Harbor sends them across the hall to FRC. My Safe Harbor includes three programs. Mother’s Club, a weekly class on topics like cooking, knitting, or crafts, is
TRANSFORMED LIVES: Virginia Lopez (above); Leticia Sanchez (in orange) teaches Lopez how to operate a sewing machine (middle); Remedios Hernandez (in blue) and Viviana Mondragon discuss notes during an SFI class.
an entryway into the organization and helps the women build relationships. Then come elective courses, taking two to six weeks, that teach skills like typing. They require more responsibility: Women must register and pay $5 if they miss a class without calling in first. Three classes, each with 10 to 15 women, have gone through the main,
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MONEY BOX 3 contributions: , 3 expenses: , 3 Net assets at the end of : , 3 Executive director Becky Ahlberg’s salary: , 3 Staff: Three part-time employees and volunteers 3 budget: ,
showed up for her fourth quarter with her newborn in her arms. The other mothers in the room helped her when the baby got fussy, and understood when she needed to breastfeed. A facilitator leads the class for three hours a week, work—LETICIA SANCHEZ ing through sections on personal development, discipling children, managing year-long course—the Strong Families money, and spiritual formation. The Institute (SFI)—and a fourth class is final project is a reflection paper on the now in the middle of it. Students can course–a big step for many women join only through referrals. They need illiterate even in Spanish. to fill out an application, including a The spiritual formation section covshort essay about why they want to ers the Bible, the church, and what it join, and take care of the , fee. means to have a relationship with God, The women are required to pay at least with the goal of pointing women to a for it over the first nine months, church community where they can see and work off the rest of their fee by healthy marriages modeled by helping with childcare, office work, or Christians. AFCC’s Spanish-speaking translating for a class. pastor and his wife regularly dine with The requirements for joining SFI the women, and the pastor’s wife has alone often deter people from joining, started a Bible study with a dozen of but Alhberg believes that’s important: the MSH women. Flores said she had “If they don’t pay, they don’t own it. … never read the Bible before SFI, but You have to want it enough. Some of now she reads it every day. She joined them will show up with a week to the Bible study and is so excited about pay their way.” what she’s learning that she reads Guadalupe Flores, a graduate in the ahead of her assignment. second class, was so intent on taking the course that even the birth of her fourth child didn’t make her miss class. SFI She got larger through the first threenow has members, with quarters of the course and had her baby more joining next month. over winter break. In January, she Since January four SFI women,
‘I found out that I raised my children the way I knew from my parents, but that’s not the right way.’
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Email: alu@worldmag.com
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two children, and two boyfriends—one now a husband—have been baptized. Many of the graduated students continue to come to the center to teach classes and mentor other women: On May , women from the first and second SFI classes helped teach women how to make paper flowers in Mother’s Club. An MSH volunteer demonstrated how to cut, fold, and twist the colorful tissue paper as more than women, some rocking babies, sat at tables laughing and perfecting their creations. Sanchez, dressed in a blazer and pumps, spoke up, showing the women a better way to fold the petals delicately. The mother of three now teaches classes at the city’s Family Justice Center, helps out at My Safe Harbor, and maintains a good relationship with her children. Even her wardrobe has changed since attending SFI. She told Ahlberg that although she may not be professional, she can look professional— so she bought suits from a thrift shop. Many of the other women in the room, including Flores, attribute their involvement in MSH to Sanchez. Cradling her now -month-old baby dressed in a polar bear onesie, Flores lists her graduation from SFI as one of her proudest moments. The softspoken mother of four said that through MSH she is able to trust people for the first time, making friends with the other women and opening up to them. “I feel like this place is my antistress,” Flores said. “I come here to relax, to learn new things. This place makes me feel like family.” A
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Hope Award for Ef fective Com passion
Desert oasis West REGIONAL RUNNeR-up
A border doesn’t stop Crossroads Nogales Rescue Mission from being good neighbors to those in need
by Angela Lu in Nogales, Ar iz.
photos by angela lu
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s Arizona’s Interstate 19 comes to an end, the city of Nogales looms in the distance. It has lowrise buildings, colorful clusters of homes—and a jarring steel snake of a fence that divides residents. Nogales, Ariz., has a population of 21,000. Nogales of the Mexican state of Sonora has 10 times as many. Many things are similar on either side of the 20-foot fence, which also extends 10 feet underground. Spanish signs proclaiming ¡Venta! (“sale”) decorate stores. Highway signs on both sides use the metric system. The differences, though, are profound: Police and border patrol officers roam on one side, drug cartel honchos intimidate and often control local authorities on the other. On the U.S. side, the hourly minimum wage is $7.80. That’s more than a day’s wages for factory workers on the other side of the fence.
Bert Wenke, assistant director of the Crossroads Nogales Rescue Mission, admits she doesn’t know what to do with the jarring disparities in her city, or America’s larger immigration problem. Illegal immigrants regularly run through her backyard or duck behind shrubbery as she drives home, and she responds by calling the border patrol. But Wenke and her husband, Ben, do know that the fence should not bar Christian compassion to her neighbors in Mexico who live in poverty. They opened Crossroads in 1995. At the time friends told them it would never work: Nogales is too rural. Nogales straddles two countries. Nogales has no major industry so there’s no way to get support. But the Wenkes stuck with it, relying on prayer and the generosity of churches and donors in nearby towns. Today the mission has grown to four facilities and a budget of more than $600,000. It helps thousands of people, almost entirely from Mexico. Bert was once an aspiring go-go dancer and barmaid. Ben was a drug dealer and alcoholic. After
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having children, though, they professed faith in Christ— first Bert, and then (after much prayer) Ben as well. They felt called to help others with troubled backgrounds and worked at rescue missions in Seattle, Boise, Wichita, and Tucson before heading to Nogales. Together they had 60 years of mission work between them, yet the issues they dealt with in Nogales were unlike anything they worked with before. For starters, the people who come for the free food, chapel services, and RUNNING ON FAITH: Women queue up for the Mother’s Day luncheon (above); the mission (left).
clothing come from a different country, using Mexican visas to cross the border. Rather than dealing with drug addicts and homeless people, most of the people either have jobs in factories with measly pay or are elderly societal discards. The Wenkes also deal with border city issues: One woman with children stayed at their shelter until they realized she was a coyote smuggling children illegally over the border, using the mission as a stopping point. From then on, anyone staying the night had to show an ID. On the morning of Crossroad’s Mother’s Day luncheon, men, women, and children started filling up the mission’s courtyard at 7 a.m., hours before
the chapel services even started. The regulars helped volunteers set up chairs and tarps, some picking up brooms and sweeping the floor. The journey to the mission—riding the bus, walking, waiting to cross the border— takes more than half a day for some. Marta Jimenez Merino, a shorthaired woman with glasses, waits under a canopy for chapel to start. A bandage covers her middle finger, which she said she cut at her factory job scraping off paint. The job pays only enough to cover her utilities, and as she also helps take care of her grandchildren, “we wouldn’t make it if the Mission didn’t feed us here,” she said in Spanish.
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MONEY BOX 3 2012 contributions: $496,400 3 2012 expenses: $442,400 3 Net assets at the end of 2012: $532,500 3 Executive director Ben Wenke’s salary: $38,500 3 Staff: Eight employees, 300plus volunteers 3 2013 budget: $615,300
WHATEVER HELPS: Men enjoy the Mother’s Day lunch (above); women sort through clothing.
She’s been coming to Crossroads every Saturday for a year, traveling five or six hours one way from her home in Mexico. Merino, who is 56, fears for her job security, for many in Mexican society believe people over 50 are too old to work. She and others file into the chapel at 11 a.m., where the pastor preaches about the importance of mothers in the Bible. Men and women drop pesos and coins into the offering plate, which goes to help missions in other cities. Around noon, the people queue up at the dining area, where volunteers passed out ham, corn salad, and a roll. They’re serenaded with a Spanish Mother’s Day song, and a Cub Scout handed each mother a carnation. Once outside the women stop by stations to pick up produce bags, loaves of bread, and purses filled with toiletries and a Bible. Then they head to the women’s shelter down the street, where donated clothes, toys, and appliances pile high on folding tables. The scene is chaotic as the women scavenge through the clothing, filling enormous bags with goods. Mission worker Mike Atkins said most of these
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donations would end up being sold in flea markets in the next few days, but he said it didn’t bother him: “They need to eat, if they can make money off the clothes to make that happen, that’s fine. Whatever helps them make it.”
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ately the donated goods have decreased, with oncefilled shipping containers now barely half full. The recession has hit Nogales hard: Unemployment flounders at 17 percent as jobs are scarce. Now the people coming to Crossroads walk out with 15-pound produce bags that once weighed 30 pounds. Crossroads also lost access to USDA food supplies and funds after the Arizona Department of Economic Security added requirements that all religious organizations stop “proselytizing.” In order to receive government aid, Crossroads has to get rid of chapel, stop passing out
tracts and Bibles with food bags, and take out the word Jesus in its signs. “[The government aid] would have helped a lot, but we couldn’t do it because our purpose was to honor God,” Ben said. State officials told Ben the mission workers could talk about their faith only if any of the clients asked about it, but he didn’t think that was enough: “The prophets didn’t sit at the city gates and wait for people to approach them. They yelled for the people to repent.” The chapel is a big reason why many regulars come. Gustavo Rosas, a 78-year-old man with a handlebar mustache and white cowboy hat, said he comes first for the necessity of the Word of God, then for the food. He loves discussing the sermons with the other patrons and hearing their different points of view. Since losing USDA aid, the Wenkes have continued to pray and trust that God will provide. All nine of the supporting churches in nearby towns like Green Valley increased their giving. While the quality of the food may have decreased–hamburgers rather than sliced roast–the ministry was able to serve 39,000 meals on $4,000 worth of food supplies. Bert said she’s seen miracles while working at the fledgling mission. One moment she’d find the pantry nearly empty. Then someone would come in and drop off $3,000. “God knew this ministry would run on faith,” Bert said. “We pray for everything. We told ourselves no one should go out of the mission without something in their hand, and that promise has been kept.” A
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of demonstrations in cities, police forces in Turkey made one final sweep through Istanbul’s Taksim Square, arresting the remaining protesters and wiping out their tent city. That appeared to be the end of nationwide protests that injured , and left at least four dead— until a local performing artist arrived on the night of June and peacefully planted himself in the square. With his hands in his pockets, the “standing man” stared solemnly for hours at the Turkish flag and a portrait of Kemal Ataturk, the founder of Turkey’s secular democracy. A photo of his silent protest went viral on social media sites, topping worldwide Twitter trends, as hundreds arrived to join him, complicating the prime minister’s attempts to depict protesters as enemies and rebels.
TURKEY’S INSIDE An aging but popular exile in the United States, Fethullah Gulen is considered by many to be behind moves to Islamicize his native land by JILL NELSON photo by Ruth Fremson/The New York Times/Redux
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DE MAN THE FORCE: Gulen at his compound in Saylorsburg, Pa.
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ICONIC: “The standing man” (left) in Taksim Square; Ahmet Sik (middle), injured in a May 31 clash with riot police; Levent Sakar’s physics class at Gulen-run Harmony Science Academy High School in Houston.
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to be ladies with scarves. They get state bids by standing with the cemaat [the Gulen Movement] and they get richer and richer.” Concern about the Gulen Movement may peak again this summer, with a Turkish court expected to announce a verdict on Aug. 5 on almost 300 defendants accused in the longstanding Ergenekon trial, a convoluted investigation viewed as a political witch-hunt. The courts have charged hundreds of Turks with plotting to overthrow the government since the case was opened in 2003, including dozens of journalists who have written accusations about Gulen. According to Reporters Without Borders, Turkey is the world’s worst jailer of journalists, with 67 currently behind
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Michael Stravato/The New York Times
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he image Gulen, 72, has created for himself in the United States stands in stark contrast to the whispers and carefully chosen words from many Turks when asked about Gulen. “Turks who oppose the AKP and the Gulen movement fear to speak
‘You must move in the arteries of the system with STANDING MAN: MARCO LONGARI/AFP/Getty Images • SIK: AP
The icons of the Turkish protests have ranged from penguins to gas masks but perhaps the most telling has been the standing man. Demonstrations that began over plans to redevelop a cherished park turned into public—and violent—venting over Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s increasingly authoritarian style and fear that his Justice and Development Party (AKP) aims to replace the government’s secular identity with an Islamist one. The Gulen Movement is believed to be the force behind the AKP’s rise to power in 2002 and growing Islamism. The government recently passed a ban restricting the sale of alcohol and is considering a petition to turn Hagia Sophia—once the world’s largest church—from a museum into a mosque. “They’re not going to say this is a demonstration against Islam, but this is a demonstration against Islamic rule in this country,” Fikret Bocek, a pastor, said of recent protests. Turkey is 97 percent Muslim, but many Turks are fearful of losing the freedoms they’ve enjoyed since Ataturk laid the country’s secular foundations some 90 years ago. Behind the government crackdown on protests, which eased in July, some Turks believe a secret society is at work. They say Muslim leader Fethullah Gulen is behind the arrests of dozens of journalists, military officers, and Erdogan critics and is vying for control of the nation’s military, police forces, and government. Perhaps the most puzzling part of the story for wary Turks is that Gulen—one of the most controversial Muslim leader in the world—lives in self-imposed exile in rural Pennsylvania and has created one of the largest networks of charter schools in the nation.
their minds freely. If you have doubts, call a friend in Turkey and ask for an opinion. … Your friend will respond with details of the weather,” Turkish expert Soner Cagaptay wrote in the Financial Times. Many believe the Gulen Movement is the force behind the AKP’s rise to power in 2002, which ushered in a new era of Islamist control and a decade of troubling trends. Some say his loyalists comprise a substantial part of the police force and were behind the excessive use of water cannons and tear gas during this summer’s protests. Police in Turkey are known as “F type,” referring to Fethullah, Gulen’s first name. Gulen followers can be divided into two groups, according to Ibrahim Yilmaz, a prominent scholar whose real name WORLD agreed not to use to protect his work: The first includes innocent Muslims who genuinely believe Gulen is promoting a moderate version of Islam and improving lives through education. The second group—far more dangerous, Yilmaz believes—is “after a religious government and system in Turkey. Most of them are rich businessmen whose wives used to have a modern style and secular ideas but turned out
bars. Journalist Ahmet Sik was two months away from publishing a book detailing the Gulen connection to the Turkish police when officials raided his home and confiscated his materials in March . Officials charged him with plotting to overthrow the government, his case bound together with hundreds more comprising the Ergenekon trial and his manuscript cited as proof and banned for publication in Turkey. Sik is sure his criticism of Gulen is behind the charges. “If you touch him, you will burn!” Sik yelled as police arrested him. They released him a year later, and his book was illegally published as part of an anti-censorship movement supported by more than journalists in Turkey.
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A O to American soil and you’ll find an entirely different portrayal of Fethullah Gulen. His network of charter schools has joined battles against behemoth teachers’ unions, bringing more than schools in states to underprivileged areas. It’s difficult to deny the benefits of Gulen’s vast educational empire. The names of the Gulen-inspired schools sound like any other charter schools—Harmony, Magnolia, and the Daisy Education Corporation, to name a few—and their emphasis on science and technology generally produces decent to excellent test scores. Turkish language classes are often added to the curriculum.
At the time, Turkish courts charged Gulen with corruption and anti-secular political activity. He was acquitted but critics still wonder about the true intentions behind his growing empire. Since his exile, Gulen resides on a -acre estate in the Poconos of Pennsylvania with an estimated followers who guard the premises and tend to his needs. In addition to the charter school network, Gulen has holdings in countries in media, think tanks, universities, banks, and charities. Charter schools in the United States are publicly funded, so legally they cannot offer religious classes, and Gulen discourages his followers from proselytizing. But his charter school network is under fire for hiring primarily Turkish teachers and staff who arrive in the United States on HB work visas (see “Soft sell,” Aug. , ) and for discriminating against women. Yilmaz, an education consultant, has observed the movement’s segregation of women in Turkey. Teachers from the Turkish Gulen schools are required to meet every Saturday morning for training on a variety of educational topics. Yilmaz says the most interesting aspect of these meetings is that “ladies sit at the back rows, almost all of them with scarves, and men in the front. Ladies hardly ask questions and never shake hands with men.” The school sometimes requires him to give two separate seminars for men and women on the same topic. That wouldn’t be unusual in most Muslim countries, but Turkey has operated on strict secular principles. For example, the government traditionally bans headscarves in the public sector. “The Gulen Movement controls a vast area in Turkey, and one thing that I will never understand is why the U.S. is covering this guy’s back,” said Yilmaz. Gulen’s network of charter schools in the United States is currently under federal investigation for an alleged kickback scheme involving Hizmet, another organization founded by Gulen, but Gulen continues to work from and reside freely in Pennsylvania. That’s in spite of what U.S. officials in Turkey have been saying. A cable from former U.S. Ambassador James F. Jeffrey (released by WikiLeaks) described President Abdullah Gul as a Gulen loyalist and said that the Gulen movement
STANDING MAN: MARCO LONGARI/AFP/GETTY IMAGES • SIK: AP
MICHAEL STRAVATO/THE NEW YORK TIMES
stem without anyone noticing your existence until you reach all the power centers.’ — Gulen, affectionately called hocaefendi, or “master teacher,” by his followers, launched his movement years ago when he was an imam in Izmir, Turkey, preaching the ideas of the mystical Nur sect. He immigrated to the United States in , allegedly for medical treatment, but the timing suggests another possible explanation: Shortly after his trek abroad, a sermon aired in Turkey suggesting his support for an Islamic state: “You must move in the arteries of the system without anyone noticing your existence until you reach all the power centers … until the conditions are ripe,” Gulen said in a video (loyalists argue it was altered). The video exhorts followers to bring to their sides “all the power of the constitutional institutions in Turkey.”
Email: jnelson@worldmag.com
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controls Turkey’s government and dictates Turkish policy. “It is not possible to confirm that the Turkish police are under the control of the Gulen community members, but we have not met anybody who denies it,” a cable read. Americans would do well to take note of Gulen-related activities in Turkey as well as in the United States, along with the praise and criticism heaped upon its influential leader. If he’s truly a model for moderate Muslims to follow, his schools, newspapers, businesses, and the majority of his followers should reflect his democratic ideals. But if his movement is— as Gulen’s critics allege—the Big Brother behind media muzzling and trumped-up charges in Turkey, a closer examination of his stateside activities is warranted. A
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BLOOD ON THE STREE Biola University becomes ground zero in the pro-life debate over graphic abortion pictures by A ngel a Lu
Biola University sits in La Mirada, Calif., a
quiet city on the edge of Los Angeles County—but 15 minutes away, a Planned Parenthood center performs abortions, and 35 minutes away, Hollywood studios push out powerful and often graphic images to tell stories and evoke emotions. Biola for the past four years has been the home of nursing student Diana Jimenez. She always considered herself prolife, but after watching a video of an actual abortion earlier this year, she realized its horror and decided to do something about it. Last spring, with her graduation and the end of the school year approaching, Jimenez worried that some Biola students could be aborting babies over the summer. She partnered with the Center for Bio-Ethical Reform (CBR) to set up a display on May 8 that included brochures, information on crisis pregnancy centers, and posters displaying enlarged photos of hands, feet, bodies, and faces of babies aborted in the first trimester. Biola officials asked her to take it down, saying she didn’t get the school’s approval. Jimenez then met with Matthew Hooper, Biola’s associate dean of students: He said Biola approves of her message but she could not show such graphic imagery in an open area of campus.
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Jimenez felt her schoolmates needed to see the photos: On May 17 she carried a sign to the center of campus and held it up. Campus security told her to leave and threatened to arrest her and keep her from graduating: Jimenez captured some of that on video. Later, when Jimenez tried to get letters of recommendation from her professors, she found Biola nursing director Susan Elliott had told the nursing faculty not to write them for her. The bans on both signs and recommendations soon attracted attention around the country.
Biola’s response to Jimenez is the latest instance of
Christian colleges forbidding students from erecting graphic abortion displays. CBR head Gregg Cunningham says his group has shown the images at hundreds of secular public colleges— free speech laws allow that—but not at private Christian colleges. Cunningham argues that graphic images are crucial in teaching students what abortion is. He escalated the Biola battle by juxtaposing a video of Biola’s Campus Safety chief threatening Jimenez with a speech by Biola UNDER president Barry Corey on Christians standing for FIRE: their convictions. The video, available on YouTube, Jimenez.
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Pro-life leaders have long debated the appropriateness and effectiveness of graphic imagery, with crisis pregnancy centers largely refraining from using them: The centers emphasize compassion, not horror. Jhaneth Gomez, client services manager at Open Arms Pregnancy Center in Northridge, Calif., said the pregnant women who come in are already so scared and overwhelmed that abortion photos add more stress rather than helping them make an informed decision. Gomez says it’s better to tell a pregnant woman “about the changes in her baby’s body so we can make her conscious of how the baby is developing.” Giving women ultrasounds shows them the baby growing inside “so they see that abortion erases that life.” She also doesn’t like using the photos
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from viewing, such as in classrooms. Administrators say people of different ages and experiences traverse the central area of campus. They do not want bloody pictures thrust into the faces of children visiting the campus and women healing from past abortions: “The public displaying of very graphic, disturbing images–for whatever purpose, even one so in line with Biola’s heart–is not an appropriate venue of student expression on our campus.” Jimenez says when she had previously invited Cunningham to give a talk, only four students came. She says she needed to stand out in the middle of campus to get the message to the largest number of students.
Gary Fong/Genesis Photos
garnered 12,000 views in its first week, dividing many prolife bloggers and commenters into taking the side of either Biola or Jimenez. Cunningham, pointing to social reforms such as slavery, child labor, and the civil rights movement, says public opinion changes only after people see images depicting the reality of the injustices. He says Christians have been overly concerned with not offending people, and he says schools like Biola help “Planned Parenthood hide the horror of abortion. … We’re losing ground until Christian colleges are willing to get serious and provide systematic leadership in defense of life.” CBR similarly attacked Liberty University administrators in 2011 after they banned graphic photos on their campus. The Biola administration says its pro-life commitment permeates all aspects of the school. In a document entitled “In Word and Deed” the school pointed to its Doctrinal Statement: “The Bible is clear in its teaching on the sanctity of life. Life begins at conception. We abhor the destruction of innocent human life through abortion on demand, infanticide or euthanasia as unbiblical and contrary to God’s will.” The document also lists services Biola offers students with unplanned pregnancies, lectures and chapel talks on the scanctity of life, its support of students engaged in pro-life work, and the school’s lawsuit against Obamacare’s contraceptive mandate. Biola’s administration allows students to show graphic images in spaces that give others the opportunity to refrain
because she believes that disrespects aborted babies: “I don’t know who that baby is, and it’s not respecting the baby’s life to show it everywhere. That baby is a human and deserves a proper burial.” Others defend the use of bloody images. Brian Godawa, screenwriter of To End All Wars and a member of Biola’s Studio Task Force, says “the most powerful way to get truth out is through pictures. … People should be shocked into the reality of the situation.” CBR cites a website commenter with the screen name “Precious Life” who said she’s a 20-year-old Biola student and was on the way to a Planned Parenthood abortion appointment until she saw Jimenez’s sign: That “made me realize there is a human life in my womb. … I went to my
Gary Fong/Genesis Photos
KEITH DURFLINGER/SGVN
dorm room got on my knees and asked that I would have the strength to be my babies [sic] mom.” WORLD has not been able to verify that story, but Cunningham says CBR’s photos have saved the lives of five babies.
For some, the main issue isn’t the debate over the photos but how Biola responded to Jimenez’s actions. Last fall at Westmont College, which doesn’t take a position on abortion, student Seth Gruber stood on the school lawn holding signs showing bloody pictures along with Scripture. For three years Gruber, who also worked at CBR, wanted to exhibit abortion photos on his campus, but school administrators said no. When he finally took individual action, school officials tried for two hours to get him to walk away, but in the end conceded he had the right to exercise free speech. Gruber came back with signs twice more that week, then once a week for the five weeks after that.
Gruber says his signs upset some but informed others. When he heard that Jimenez was facing official opposition at Biola he accompanied her to the campus with a CBR staffer. They planned to hold up signs, but he said campus security pulled over their car and told the two non-Biola students to leave, saying they were trespassing on private property even through they had visitors’ passes. Jimenez then went on to confront campus security alone with her sign. She said the question for her was, “To what extent do I obey authority and disobey God’s calling?” Gruber says he was surprised that Biola made her leave and the nursing director issued a no-recommendation order: “Westmont is typically more liberal-leaning, whereas Biola is known for being more conservative and even has a pro-life stance, yet obviously the way they treated Diana was different.” La Verne Tolbert, a former Planned Parenthood board member and now a leading pro-life advocate, says CBR is treating Biola unfairly. Tolbert presented two pro-life talks at Biola in February and March, and notes that when she initially planned on showing a graphic abortion video, Biola did not stop her. In the end she decided to show a different video. She opposes CBR’s tough criticism of Biola’s administration: “Why not attack Planned Parenthood? Aren’t they celebrating that Christians are biting and devouring one another?” Jimenez told WORLD on June 11, “I don’t want people to believe that Biola’s not a Christian school, but they’re not doing enough. My biggest hope is that Biola would remove the restriction” on recommendations. On June 13, Dean Walter Stangl wrote to Jimenez, “I have STANDOFF: Cunningham (left); decided to rule in favor of your appeal. … Biola University. I have therefore directed Dr. Elliott to communicate to each of the Nursing Department faculty that her request is no longer in effect, and to clarify that each faculty member may write letters of recommendation for you as they feel is appropriate.” Late in June the Biola campus was peaceful. A few students in summer session walked along the school’s tree-lined walkway, while others filmed a promotional piece under the school’s iconic bell tower. But when the fall semester begins on August 28, CBR is planning to greet returning students with large abortion posters at every campus entrance, along with aerial images pulled by planes flying over the university. Cunningham’s goal is for Christian schools to be radically prolife, with programs and majors devoted to training activists: “It’s not going to happen until some china gets broken. We don’t wish it to be that way, but some china will get broken.” A
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D CANADIAN FRONT by J.C. DERRICK
Threats to religious liberty in Canada show what may be in store for the United States
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at Trinity Western University lists all the fruits of the Spirit and in , words details how to live a life “characterized by humility, self-sacrifice, mercy and justice, and mutual submission for the good of others.” As the largest Christian university in Canada, Trinity Western (TWU) requires all employees and , students to sign the pledge, which includes prohibitions against things like drinking alcohol, gossip, profanity, and “sexual intimacy that violates the sacredness of marriage between a man and a woman.” The latter clause took TWU in to the Supreme Court of Canada, where justices—in an - decision—ruled the university had the right to form the country’s first Christian teacher’s education program, despite its avowed support for traditional marriage. The decision kept the British Columbia College of Teachers from withholding accreditation and delivered a landmark ruling for religious freedom. Case closed? Hardly. Last year, TWU, located less than miles north of Washington state in Langley, British Columbia, submitted an application to open the first Christian law school in Canada. Even with a clear precedent, activists opposed TWU’s plans for a law school and accused it of being “fundamentally inconsistent with Canadian law” based solely on its stance on homosexuality. “This alone makes it incompetent to deliver legal education in the public interest,” influential attorney Clayton Ruby wrote in a February letter to the Federation of Law Societies of Canada—one of the two governing bodies overseeing the accreditation request. Both the Council of Canadian Law Deans and the Canadian Bar Association also came out in opposition to the proposed law school, and more than , law students signed a protest letter. TWU anticipates a decision from the British Columbia Ministry of Advanced Education this summer, while a deci-
sion from the Federation of Law Societies of Canada may come in the fall. Many religious freedom advocates see TWU’s law school application as a bellwether for religious freedom in Canada. They also see Canada, which legalized same-sex marriage in , as a bellwether for its neighbor to the south as the United States moves toward legalizing same-sex marriage. In the Supreme Court of Canada ruled the government had the right to redefine marriage, and months later, Parliament voted to make Canada the third country in the world to legalize same-sex marriage. The Civil Marriage Act of included religious freedom protections, and states: “It is not against the public interest to hold and publicly express diverse views on marriage.” No charges of actual discrimination have ever been leveled at TWU—a primary reason it won the case—and the school remains open to all students, in accordance with Canadian law. In February, Bryan Sandberg, an openly gay TWU student, wrote in the school newspaper: “I am only one of numerous gay and lesbian students who have had very positive experiences being welcomed and loved by this amazing community.” That doesn’t matter to homosexual activists, who insist the school is anti-gay. Opponents haven’t argued TWU’s request for a law school is somehow different from the school’s prior quest to start an education program. What they want is to change Canadian law.
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Trinity Western the Wheaton College of Canada, but it is located in the California of Canada: Less than percent of the population of British Columbia attends weekly church services. “We walk around with a bit of a target on, because the culture is overwhelmingly secular,” said Jonathan Raymond, TWU’s president from to June of this year. It might stand to reason that battles for religious freedom would take place in British Columbia, but almost , miles away, Crandall University found itself fighting a battle in one
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issue of public importance without vilifying a group of people. Kevin Boonstra, a constitutional lawyer who defended Trinity Western in its 2001 court victory, said the Whatcott decision is more about free speech than religious freedom, but it could cause confusion for religious leaders who want to oppose publicly same-sex marriage. “The difference between the permissible communication of religious doctrine, and impermissibly cloaking hate-speech in religious guise, remains problematically ill-defined,” Boonstra wrote after the decision. He told me he doesn’t think Canada has seen exactly where religious freedom will land as a result of the government’s legalization of same-sex marriage. Stephen Harper, Canada’s prime minister since 2006, is a Christian and a conservative who has made advancements for religious liberty, such as creating an Office of Religious Freedom in February. Andrew Bennett, tapped to lead the northern aggression: The TWU campus; William Whatcott; a rally in support of gay marriage at the Parliament in Ottawa (from top to bottom).
TWU: handout • Whatcott: Colin McConnell/Toronto Star/Getty Images rally: Sean Kilpatrick/Ottawa Sun/ap
within a traditional marriage between one man and one woman.” River of Pride, a local LGBT group with 32 members, complained that Crandall, a Baptist school, was receiving public funds ($100,000 annually from the City of Moncton), but the university, although open to all students, wouldn’t hire practicing homosexuals. The charges set off a year-long controversy for the small and, according to Crandall President Bruce Fawcett, unprepared university: “We all know society is secularizing around us at a rapid rate, but the implications of that sometimes don’t occur to you until something like this hits you in the face.” Crandall announced in November that it would no longer seek funds from the city, but activists then took aim at the policy itself. “If we removed the policy, the next thing could be our statement faith,” Fawcett told me. He said the dispute only died down after the two sides met in early June over dinner, aired their differences, and agreed to disagree. “You
may not agree on everything, but you can still arrive at a place of peace and understanding based on mutual respect,” he said. Fawcett and other evangelical leaders believe a chief problem in Canada—and the United States—is that most Christians don’t know how to speak about biblical sexual ethics to a secular audience, and that only exacerbates existing tensions with the homosexual community. “Jesus said to be wise as serpents and harmless as doves, not vicious as snakes and stupid as pigeons,” said Don Hutchinson, vice president of the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada—the Canadian equivalent of the National Association of Evangelicals. Hutchinson cited as evidence a recent Supreme Court decision, Saskatchewan Human Rights Commission v. William Whatcott, where the high court ruled a radical protestor (think Westboro Baptist Church) was guilty of hate speech for comparing homosexuals to child molesters in literature he distributed. At the same time, the court also said part of Whatcott’s activities were not hate speech, because they expressed a valid opinion on an
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Dave Chan
of the most conservative cities in the country: Moncton, New Brunswick, sits east of the Canadian border with Maine, and about 33 percent of its 70,000 residents attend church services. The city has 22 Baptist churches alone, which provide a steady pipeline of students to the local Baptist university of about 850 students. In May 2012, homosexual activists launched a wellorchestrated attack based on Crandall’s admonition for employees to “be sexually pure, reserving sexual intimacy for
office as its first ambassador of religious freedom, has no domestic mandate, but evangelical leaders are hopeful his appointment will elevate the issue’s importance in his home country. Bennett, speaking at a June luncheon in New York, said there is no need for him to have a domestic mandate, since religious freedom is written into Canadian law and protected in Parliament and the courts. “But we have to be vigilant that we guard that [fundamental freedom],” he said. For Conservatives in Parliament, vigilance means repealing hate crimes legislation. The House of Commons voted last year to repeal Section of the Canadian Human Rights Act, which banned ill-defined “hate speech” via phone or internet communication. The law had allowed Canada’s human rights commission to provide selective enforcement, an arrangement opponents say has led to infringements upon free speech and religious liberty. The repeal bill gained Senate approval on June and won’t legalize hate speech—but it will strip the human rights commission of its enforcement power. (Truth is no defense in the commission’s secret “courts,” which have been accused of planting evidence in hate speech investigations. In one case, a Christian printer was ordered to pay , for refusing to produce cards and letterhead for a homosexual group that also promoted pedophilia.) It’s unclear what impact HarperBennett led reforms will have in the coming years: Some call them “dramatic” advancements for religious liberty, while others use the word “tweaks” to describe moves that could be overshadowed by future judicial decisions. Two ongoing court battles may be the next front: marriage commissioners who are forced to conduct same-sex marriage ceremonies, and Catholic schools that are required to start gay/straight alliance clubs.
Holocaust to what’s happening, but it’s extraordinarily dangerous not to confront [the growing threat].” Bull said if current trends continue, religious freedom will be limited to what a person does at home or within a church building. Those attempts are already under way in some parts of the United States, where objections of conscience have led to lawsuits against photographers, bakers, and others who don’t want to be directly involved in same-sex ceremonies. The onslaught will only continue with the U.S. Supreme Court decision to strike down Section of the Defense of Marriage Act, which defined marriage as between one man and one woman for purposes of federal benefits. In his dissenting opinion, Justice Antonin Scalia wrote, “The only thing that will ‘confine’ the court’s holding is its sense of what it can get away with.” Bull said bad things for conservatives come to the United States after a trial run in Canada: “Homosexual activism starts in Canada and creeps forward to the United States.” Bull said Christians are “asleep at the switch” and need to have the courage to stand up for what they believe in. Crandall’s Bruce Fawcett also gave some advice to U.S. believers: get ready. “It will come—and probably when you least expect it,” he said. “The time to begin praying is not in the middle of the storm.” Fawcett suggested Christian organizations and institutions meet to talk about exactly what they believe and how they will express those views, because they will eventually be challenged. Following Trinity Western’s victory, six more education programs sprang up at Christian institutions in Canada, yet few faith leaders have shown a willingness to publicly defend the school in its law school controversy. Although TWU may eventually find relief from the courts again, it raises the question: Should it have to go to court to start every new program? Attorney Kevin Boonstra argues nothing has changed since when the court ruled that “freedom of religion is not accommodated if the consequence of its exercise is the denial of the right of full participation in society.” But, according to a group of lawyers and professors who wrote an op-ed for Canada’s National Post, things are different now. “Much has changed—both in the law and in Canadian society,” they wrote. “Time did not stop in .” Perhaps not, but TWU’s Jonathan Raymond said the university is operating under the conviction that Canada needs a Christian law school, so it is willing to do what it takes to gain approval—and that may mean going back to court: “If it’s not approved, we’re not going to just throw in the towel.” A
Religious freedom is written into Canadian law and protected in Parliament and the courts. ‘But we have to be vigilant.’
DAVE CHAN
TWU: HANDOUT • WHATCOTT: COLIN McCONNELL/TORONTO STAR/GETTY IMAGES RALLY: SEAN KILPATRICK/OTTAWA SUN/AP
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C I spoke with know that religious freedom in Canada is still far better than in many countries around the world, but they’re also aware of the slow ebb of infringement upon liberties once enjoyed. Several stressed the need for Christians to affirm what they support, instead of stating what they are against, to help alleviate the tension. But Benjamin Bull, chief counsel for Alliance Defending Freedom Global, told me that alone won’t stem the tide: “They sound very much like the cautious Jews in Germany in , who said, ‘Let’s just keep our heads down and be good citizens and all of this will blow over.’ I’m not equating the
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Notebook
Lifestyle > Technology > Science > Houses of God > Sports > Money > Religion
River music Revitalized attitudes toward urban rivers and nature are spurring reclamation efforts nationwide
DAMIAN DOVARGANES/AP
BY SOPHIA LEE
>>
T , at mankind’s broken relationship with nature, just YouTube the famous car race scene in the film Grease. John Travolta’s character smirks and flicks his gelled hair while striding his white steel Greased Lightning. He and his nemesis skid along a narrow stream of tarry water, under bridges and past expressways, while their fans cheer by the concrete banks. That notorious car race scene was shot at the Los Angeles River (LAR). Most viewers may not realize it’s a real river. Nor do they imagine that the emaciated stream within a sheet of concrete once used to provide enough water for a town, and to feed its banks with so much wildlife and nutrients that practically any crop flourished. Decades ago LAR flash floods prompted the city to ask the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to drown the river in . million barrels of concrete. Residents salted LAR with cheese-stained FritoLay bags, broken furniture, and industrial leaks. Environmentalist Billy McKibben somberly wrote that LAR symbolizes “the end of nature.”
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Others emphasized humor and irony: Comedian Conan O’Brien’s first sketch after he relocated from New York City to Los Angeles lampooned LAR’s pathetic existence: O’Brien tried (and failed) to canoe down it. But at least he recognized there was a river. Many Angelenos don’t even know it exists. LAR’s story is similar to many of the world’s urban rivers: Seoul’s Han River, Poland’s Vistula, Brazil’s Capibaribe, China’s Yangtze. In America, we have the green-sludged Chicago River, the dissipating Colorado, the toxic Hudson—just to name a few. Although specific challenges are unique to each river, city dwellers’ attitudes to urban rivers followed a similar chain of responses: They treated the river as a garbage chute, a self-flushing toilet, a backyard to chuck undesirable transients and bums, and eventually, a serial killer to be gated and punished when it froths flash floods in rages of protest. But LAR is now a symbol of a major shift in the national approach to urban rivers and nature— and it all started with a small-town lad’s tanked performance art piece. BROKEN RELATIONSHIP: Lewis MacAdams A shoe on the bottom of met the river for the the Los Angeles River.
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Notebook > Lifestyle an all-day event of waterfront activities, sees up to 25,000 local participants throughout the New York-New Jersey region. Lewis pointed to LA and revitalization of the San Antonio River. Bike paths, parks, boardwalks, and hiking trails now accompany rivers across the nation such as the Anacostia in Washington, D.C., and Maryland, the Rio Grande in Albuquerque, the Blue River in Kansas City, and the Santa Cruz River in Tucson. In Denver, more than 400 volunteers show up for the annual CH2M HILL Spring RiverSweep along the South Platte River. People are seeing nature not just as something that is pristine or destroyed. They’re asking: Can a metropolitan city—a place where “wilderness” is associated only with violence and disorder—coexist with nature’s wilderness? Catholic theologian Douglas Christie, who teaches at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, hopes residents will “give more attention to the world and cherish its beauty.” Christie points to the revitalized north end section of the LA River, where waters gurgle and birds sing. But there are also sounds of father-and-son fishing, bicycle tires skidding, and kids playing soccer: “That’s us too, with the river. The music of the place includes us, but also more than us. We’re not the only ones making music.”
The Telegraph (UK) newspaper reports that South Korean doctors are seeing more people with a decline in cognitive abilities of the sort “more commonly seen in people who have suffered a head injury or psychiatric illness.” They call the decline “digital dementia,” and say it comes from the overuse of smart phones and other digital devices. More than two of three South Koreans have a smartphone, and more than 18 percent of young Koreans between the ages of 10 and 19 use their phones more than seven hours a day. Doctors speculate that use of smartphones results in underuse of the right side of the brain, where concentration occurs. According to German neuroscientist Manfred Spitzer, the devices cause irreversible damage to children’s still-developing brains. American schools are spending more to equip classrooms with digital devices, but Spitzer wants them banned from German classrooms. —Susan Olasky
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LAR: Universal Images Group/Getty Images • kids: Sean Gallup/Getty Images
Digital dementia?
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Aeryon Scout: handout • New Zealand: Jon Shenk/ap • Ramirez: Mary F. Calvert/The New York Times/redux
first time in 1985 while walking to the downtown bus stop to Venice. He was shocked to see a vomit of sewage water, strangled beneath concrete and caged within graffitied walls, barbed fences, and “NO TRESPASSING” signs. He had moved to Los Angeles to make it into the film industry “just like any other schmo who comes to LA,” but it took him only five minutes to decide the river would be his life’s work. MacAdams created a performance piece, “Friends of the Los Angeles River,” by donning a white suit and painting his face a watery green. It failed so dismally that a theater refused to pay him and his girlfriend dumped him. But in 1986, MacAdams revived Friends of the Los Angeles River (FoLAR) as a nonprofit community organization that continues to speak for the river today. The city of Los Angeles adopted a LAR revitalization plan in 2007 that envisioned a beautified river as “the soul of the city,” connecting communities and serving neglected neighborhoods. An annual FoLAR cleanup draws more than 3,000 people, who get down on their knees to pick up trash clogging the river. (The initial event in 1989 included barely 30 volunteers.) Roland Lewis, president and CEO of the Metropolitan Waterfront Alliance (MWA) in New York City, said, “People are changing their approaches to urban waterfronts.” The MWA includes 700 civic organizations, companies, and local unions, all pledging commitment to revitalize the New York-New Jersey waterfront. MWA’s annual City of Water Day Festival,
river dance: Annual FoLAR cleanup.
Notebook > Technology
Airborne searches Creative or crazy? Google wants to deliver internet by balloon BY DANIEL JAMES DEVINE
LAR: UNIVERSAL IMAGES GROUP/GETTY IMAGES • KIDS: SEAN GALLUP/GETTY IMAGES
AERYON SCOUT: HANDOUT • NEW ZEALAND: JON SHENK/AP • RAMIREZ: MARY F. CALVERT/THE NEW YORK TIMES/REDUX
>>
I A, many of us take instant internet access for granted. Two-thirds of the world’s population doesn’t have a connection, often because of a lack of infrastructure needed to provide the service. Internet giant Google is offering a new way to provide that infrastructure: by balloon. Not just any balloons, but helium-filled weather balloons that fly miles into the stratosphere, high above clouds and commercial airplanes. The balloons are tall and resemble clear, gigantic, inflated garbage bags. They hoist a solar panel array and can transmit G-speed internet signals over an area larger than a city. Because stratospheric air currents blow in different directions depending on the altitude, Google can steer its balloons, crudely, by remotely raising or lowering their altitude. Using dozens or hundreds of them, Google plans to create regional internet networks for rural areas. The company has named its experiment Project Loon, and is currently testing the idea with balloons in New Zealand, where a sheep farmer became the first to connect. If all goes well, Google may launch to balloons that would circle the globe in New Zealand’s latitude—a ring that includes Australia, South Africa, and Argentina. The company doesn’t currently plan to cover the entire globe, which would require thousands of launches. Some critics think the project will get grounded by geopolitical concerns: Sovereign nations consider the stratosphere part of their airspace, and some governments may not take kindly to Western internet balloons flying overhead. Other critics say many poor people lack the computers or devices needed to connect to the balloons in the first place. Time will tell if the drifting network floats or flops.
UP, UP AND AWAY: A Project Loon balloon above New Zealand.
Email: ddevine@worldmag.com
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Robots could soon be flying alongside natural gas pipelines in Alaska for routine inspections. BP is testing an , drone equipped with a heat-sensing camera that could check for pipe leaks, potentially replacing helicopter flights, according to the Reuters news service. The -pound “Aeryon Scout” drone looks like a helicopter itself, but with four sets of blades. The Federal Aviation Administration is scheduled to set rules for commercial drone use by , and BP hopes to deploy its first drones soon afterward. By then, the company hopes technology will have improved its robotic inspector’s -minute flight time. —D.J.D.
Patent racket The chairwoman of the Federal Trade Commission, Edith Ramirez, has asked the commission to investigate the practices of “patent trolls.” Similar to copyright trolls (See “Troll fees,” June , ), patent trolling businesses have no purpose other than to buy portfolios of patents and sue companies for violating them. One patent troll, for instance, in threatened legal action against coffee shops for violating a patent as they installed Wi-Fi networks. With patents covering tens of thousands of software and hardware innovations in the smartphone age, it’s easier than ever for a company to violate a patent inadvertently. Ramirez wants the commission to find out whether trolling “patent-assertion entities” are ultimately encouraging competition (which is the whole purpose of patents) or simply shaking down unsuspecting businesses. Trolls file about percent of patent suits, and businesses spend billion a year fighting them, according to a study last year. —D.J.D.
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Notebook > Science
Carbon decree Obama will regulate CO2 as a pollutant, but to what effect?
By daniel james devine
>>
On a sweltering summer day in Washington, President Obama stepped up to a sunlit lectern at Georgetown University, removed his suit jacket, rolled up his sleeves, mopped his forehead with a white handkerchief, and told the crowd it was time to fight climate change. Obama announced he would bypass Congress and use his executive powers to rein in carbon dioxide emissions in the United States. Never mind that many scientists dispute the magnitude of man’s role in raising global temperatures, or dispute that the effects will be primarily harmful. “We don’t have time for a meeting of the Flat Earth Society,” the president scoffed. Carbon dioxide is a naturally occurring gas, but the president called it “pollution” and complained—with moral indignation—that power plants today “dump” carbon into the air for free: “That’s not right, that’s not safe, and it needs to stop.” In the June 25 speech, Obama laid out a long-term plan to reduce America’s carbon footprint. As a major component, he has ordered the Environmental Protection Agency to draw up, within a year, a framework for regulating carbon emissions from existing power plants. Although Congress rejected the president’s “cap-and-trade” carbon taxing scheme in 2010, Obama is essentially giving the EPA a green light to set up a similar system anyway. But taxing carbon is like taxing productivity: It will raise the price of energy and the cost of living. Foreign nations, without comparable rules, will grow unfettered while the U.S. economy suffers. Studies have shown U.S. cutbacks will do little to alter the climate. In an April paper from the Virginia-based Science & Public Policy Institute, climatologist Paul Knappenberger noted even if the United States stopped all carbon emitting immediately, the growth of emissions in other parts of the world—such as China and India—would replace U.S. savings in just seven years. A complete shutdown of U.S. factories, power plants, and transportation would reduce global temperature by just one-third of a degree Fahrenheit by 2100— while reducing projected sea level rise by less than an inch.
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obama: Alex Wong/Getty Images • teens: handout
The American Academy of Pediatrics, an influential organization representing 60,000 pediatricians, says that “insidious and damaging” societal attitudes are harming “lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning” youth. In a new policy statement published in Pediatrics in June, the group warned doctors against “internalized homophobia and heterosexism in the office setting” that might prevent them from treating young LGBTQ patients in a “nonjudgmental” manner. What’s heterosexism, you ask? According to the new policy, it’s “the societal expectation that heterosexuality is the expected norm and that, somehow, LGBTQ individuals are abnormal.” The pediatrics group recommended doctors use gender-neutral questions when asking teens about sexual health (“Tell me about your partner”), and display a rainbow decal to show their support for the LGBTQ community. Michelle Cretella, vice president of the American College of Pediatricians, an alternative association, told me her organization disputes the idea that all nonheterosexual attractions are normal and unchangeable: “Homosexual attractions, particularly during adolescence, are not fixed.” The politically charged policy from the American Academy of Pediatrics should perhaps TEEN come as no surprise. In March the group TARGET: endorsed gay marriage, insisting children were Metropolitan no worse off with homosexual parents than Pediatrics web banner. traditional ones. —D.J.D.
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Notebook > Houses of God
obama: Alex Wong/Getty Images • teens: handout
Jonathan Thrasher/Genesis Photos
The Bois Blanc Island Coast Guard chapel stands on an island in Lake Huron between the Lower and Upper Peninsulas of Michigan. The building is an old boathouse for the Coast Guard that islanders purchased and moved off the island’s Coast Guard Station. The chapel hosts worship services for as many as 50 people during the summer months and closes during the winter.
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Notebook > Sports
Mighty again
After decades of losing, the Pirates are plundering the National League BY ZACHARY ABATE
>>
T the Pittsburgh Pirates had a winning season President Bush was in office— George H.W. Bush. Gas cost . per gallon, and Disney’s Aladdin was the top-grossing film at the box office. The Soviet Union had fallen just months earlier. It’s been a while. For the past years, failed prospects, bad contracts, terrible ownership decisions, and poor draft choices have plagued the Pittsburgh team. The once-mighty baseball franchise, winners of five World Series and nine National League pennants, had become the least popular team in one of America’s great sports cities. The recent successes of the NHL’s Pittsburgh Penguins and the NFL’s Pittsburgh Steelers overshadowed the legends of Honus Wagner, Roberto Clemente, Bill Mazeroski, and Willie Stargell. But the Pirates’ woes may be at an end. On July th the Pittsburgh Pirates were -, tied for the best record in Major League Baseball. Everything seemingly went wrong in previous
years, but this season everything has gone right. Rookie players have made headlines, veteran players have shown leadership, and manager Clint Hurdle has pushed all the right buttons. Four Pirates made the MLB AllStar game, the most for Pittsburgh since . “It’s fun right now,” said catcher Russell Martin, after the Pirates’ ninth win in a row on June . “Being on a team with a bunch of guys who play with their hearts out there and enjoy the game, it’s definitely been a pleasure.” Team ownership must be pleased with the results as well. Tickets, Pirates merchandise, and sponsorships are selling well, according to Forbes. “People are dusting off their Pirates shirts and coming out in droves,” said closer Jason Grilli. “We’re trying to give them what they want to see.” Some fans have been skeptical, pointing to last season’s promising
GOOD TIMES: start which ended Pittsburgh in another losing Pirates after a record: The win against Pirates lost of the Seattle Mariners. their last games. Hurdle acknowledges his team has a long way to go, but he believes his players learned “lessons” from last season. Hurdle, an outspoken Christian, has seen his team’s record improve each year since he took over in . “Do you know how many times I still hear: ‘What’s going to happen later?’ I don’t know. Watch. Stay tuned. I believe I know what’s going to happen. But there are people that are never going to believe.”
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PIRATES: OTTO GREULE JR/GETTY IMAGES • CAP: NATI HARNIK/AP
The University of Nebraska’s just-opened Center for Brain, Biology and Behavior is developing a device that may be able to detect a concussion in a player’s brain, just minutes after an onfield collision. Researchers hope the electrode-covered mesh cap will analyze an athlete’s brain waves in minutes, allowing medical staff to decide if an athlete can return to the game or if he has suffered a concussion. NFL players suffering from depression, dementia, Alzheimer’s disease, and other neurological problems have highlighted the dangers of concussions sustained on the football field—a danger some believe the NFL took too lightly for years. Thousands of former players are suing the NFL, claiming the league “failed to live up to its responsibility” to protect athletes. High-profile suicides have brought the issue into the public light. Now the NCAA is making concussion research a top priority. “It’s the elephant on the table, and we, with everyone else, we have to solve it,” NCAA chief medical officer Brian Hainline said. The sideline concussion assessment tool could be ready for use within one or two years. According to the CDC, athletes suffer an estimated , sportsrelated concussions in the United States every year. —Z.A.
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BRAIN GAIN
Notebook > Money
State laboratories
Unified governments are allowing states to chart bold new fiscal budgets BY WARREN COLE SMITH
>>
E . If you don’t believe that, just ask the good folks of Indiana and Kansas. Since the election of tax-cutting Republicans (Mike Pence and Sam Brownback, both of whom likely have presidential aspirations), they’ve all seen reductions in the state income tax rate. But you don’t need a governor with eyes on the White House to get a tax cut. New Mexico’s corporate tax rate has come down. Oklahoma reduced its income tax rate by . percent. Tennessee, which already has a nearzero income tax, cut its sales tax. Ohio’s governor John Kasich has been the most recent to board the tax-cutting train, signing a two-year, billion state budget on June , barely in time to take effect when the state’s new fiscal year began the next day. The budget reduces state income tax by . billion. Fiscal troubles caused by the Great Recession may be generating this new economic conservatism. But John Hood of the libertarian-leaning John Locke Foundation says this trend is more likely a sign the country is becoming balkanized. “We now have states with one-party control of both the legislature and the governorship,” Hood said. “That’s the most in years.” To make his point, consider Hawaii. Democrat Neil Abercrombie is the governor, and the legislature is solidly Democratic. It passed a two-year budget in that included increased spending on infrastructure, education, and capital improvements—despite the fact that
Hawaii has billion in debt, the largest per capita debt burden in the nation. So will this clear divergence in tax and spending philosophies give citizens a true apples-to-apples comparison of which philosophy is best? Possibly, but even when the choices are clear, Hood says it is often difficult to isolate the causes of economic prosperity. “Texas, for example, has no income tax and its economy is booming,” Hood said. “But Texans often forget to mention that the state floats on a giant pool of oil.” And even when one party is in SLASHER: control, personal Kasich’s tax politics still matters. cuts are about Louisiana’s more than Republican Gov. dollar and cents.
Bobby Jindal tried to eliminate the state’s income tax and replace the revenue with a sales tax, a strategy favored by most conservatives. Even though the Republican Party controls the Louisiana legislature, his proposal went down to defeat. “He had his head handed to him,” said Hood. So for the foreseeable future, Hood thinks looking to Europe provides more lessons. “Overall, the countries that are better off are those that tax consumption, not income, and those that have lower tax burdens generally.” The Competitive Enterprise Institute released a study in early July that confirms that conclusion. “European governments that have cut both spending and taxes as part of their austerity programs have higher rates of economic growth than their neighbors,” the study concludes. CEI’s Matthew Melchiorre is clear: “European countries that have reduced the economic footprint of their public sectors have more prosperous economies.”
CREDIT
RICK OSENTOSKI/AP
BUDGET BONUS
The budget bill Ohio Gov. John Kasich signed into law on June was about more than dollars and cents, it was also about life and death. The new budget eliminates state funding for Planned Parenthood, blocks public hospitals from arranging transfer agreements with abortion clinics, and requires abortion providers to provide ultrasounds on women seeking abortions. “Gov. Kasich enacted measures that prescribe medically unnecessary procedures, force doctors to mislead their patients and will force quality medical centers to close,” complained Kellie Copeland, executive director of NARAL Pro-Choice Ohio. But Mike Gonidakis, president of Ohio Right to Life, said the measures will protect women and save babies’ lives. —W.C.S.
Email: wsmith@worldmag.com
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7/9/13 9:41 AM
Notebook > Religion
Going pagan
‘Church Army’ shows signs of theological compromise in the Church of England BY THOMAS KIDD
>>
E that Christianity in Britain—and even belief in God’s existence—is on its way toward minority status. In a recent YouGov poll of British young adults, only percent unequivocally affirmed a belief in God, and percent said they did not believe in God or any “greater spiritual power.” Meanwhile, one of the Church of England’s recent proposals for attracting the young and unchurched is creating a “pagan church” with Christian content. Recent census data revealed that “pagans” were the seventh-largest religious group in the United Kingdom, and that the number of pagans doubled between and . (Atheists have worked to get Britons to stop identifying as Christians on the census, and even larger numbers label themselves “Jedi Knights” than pagans.) A summer solstice gathering at Stonehenge, where more than , assembled this June, highlights the British pagan spiritual calendar. Naturally, pagans are among the groups that churches might want to evangelize, and Anglicans have hosted Christian information booths at pagan events. But the proposal for a pagan church has raised questions about theological compromise. Steve Hollinghurst, a researcher with the Church Army (an Anglican agency headed by former South African archbishop Desmond Tutu), recently told the BBC that he envisioned creating “a pagan church where Christianity was very much in the centre.” The Church Army website describes Hollinghurst as researcher on “themes of contemporary spirituality, the new age movement and mind, body, spirit fairs.” After British newspapers reported his comments, Hollinghurst posted on his personal blog that there is no actual plan to start a pagan church, even though he thinks that Christians can learn a lot from pagans. He affirmed pagans’ frequent criticism of the Christian God as exclusively male, saying that “we as Christians need to acknowledge that and recover our own tradition of the divine feminine.” Pagans have also “put Christians to shame when it comes to the environment,” Hollinghurst argued. He dismissed the idea, however, that he was looking to get pagans to “join the [Anglican] church.”
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STONEHENGE: LEWIS WHYLD/PA/AP
‘’ The Reformed Church in America (RCA) held its annual General Synod in June and officially deleted muchdebated “conscience clauses” that had allowed conservative clergy to recuse themselves from the ordination of women. The RCA began ordaining women in but had stipulated that male pastors would not have to “participate in decisions or actions contrary to their consciences” on the matter. The synod struggled, however, to determine what to do about churches and pastors who dissent from the RCA’s stance on homosexuality. In the synod reaffirmed its “official position that homosexual behavior is a sin according to the Holy Scriptures.” The synod further warned that “any person, congregation, or assembly which advocates homosexual behavior or provides leadership for a service of same-sex marriage or a similar celebration has committed a disciplinable offense.” This year’s meeting denied several petitions to rescind that statement, although delegates did agree to a proviso that the synod had exceeded its “constitutional authority” in describing homosexual advocacy as a “disciplinable offense.” A “Way Forward” committee appointed to address the issue also recommended that the RCA consider “fundamental polity changes” that could force dissidents to comply with synod policy on homosexuality. The General Synod voted down that recommendation. Evangelicals within the RCA, such as East Lansing, Mich., pastor Kevin DeYoung, have noted that certain RCA classes (regional governing bodies) openly affirm homosexual relationships and clergy, and that the New Brunswick (N.J.) classis recently ordained a practicing lesbian. DeYoung told me that this year’s meeting was “the worst synod I can recall for conservatives.” —T.K.
Email: tkidd@worldmag.com
7/9/13 9:33 AM
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Mailbag ‘A battle of wills and ideas’
June Every year I spend two to four months teaching theology in Nigeria. The battle does involve “wills and ideas,” but far beyond what Obama is speaking about publicly. The battle involves an anti-Christian hatred that has escalated into slaughtering innocents for the sake of establishing Sharia law. It’s beyond understanding that USAID is supporting Islamic schools in Nigeria or that the State Department is offering a trip to Auschwitz for imams. This is a spiritual war. —D M, Canton, Ohio
God told him, “Pray no more for these people.” —G G B, Sutherlin, Ore.
I would despair if I didn’t firmly believe that God will carry us through it all, even if this country becomes the darkest, most oppressive regime ever. Our nation needs to learn we have not enjoyed freedom and peace and prosperity because we’re Americans. —P G, Hendersonville, N.C.
As a former missionary kid to Nigeria, this article breaks my heart. But it’s the right information. It helps us understand how all this is affecting individuals. Deborah Wakai and her mom will be in my prayers. —J S, Southbury, Conn.
‘Rotten to the core?’ June This country will soon decline to the point that the headline should have an exclamation mark instead of a question mark. —S H MD, Raleigh, N.C.
Thank you for Joel Belz’s lucid warning about the extent of moral corruption, not only in the federal government but in our culture. —D H, Arcadia, Mo.
Joel Belz makes a good point: Our form of government is designed for a type of person becoming a smaller and smaller percentage of our society. —S G, Clarkesville, Ga.
I pray that the next great thing the Lord does is send a great awakening to our
Send photos and letters to: mailbag@worldmag.com
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nation so we might once again deserve godly statesmen in our highest offices. P S. K, Lubbock, Texas
Anyone can see the imminent danger, but will anyone do anything about it? How about those of us who vote these men and women into public office? —T L, Georgetown, Texas
I was born in and raised by devout atheists, so I’ve watched three generations of the decay Belz accurately described. One addition: It was already obvious in the late s that the rot had begun long before. Belz asks who will “write up those articles of impeachment?” Blessedly, the Holy Spirit did thousands of years ago. —A T, Topeka, Kan.
‘The morning after’ June This column brings to mind the Scripture, “As it was in the days of Noah.” Do I pray for God’s judgment or do I pray for more time, more mercy, and revival? The depth of man’s sin and rebellion seems even more unsustainable than it was in Jeremiah’s day when
Four hundred years ago the Pilgrims fled first to the Netherlands and then to what became New England looking for religious freedom. Today I find myself wondering where my family can flee to. —B K, Sioux Falls, S.D.
Why do all who embrace deviant behavior think that they are pioneers in breaking out of the restraints of society? It is no different from Eve’s defiance of God’s constraints. Thank you for being yet another watchman trying to shout God’s warning. —D S, New Smyrna Beach, Fla.
‘Serving the sparrows’ June In the article about Redeemed Ministries working with women caught in sex trafficking, I appreciated the emphasis on relationships, a difficult aspect of social work in our individualized culture. But I think the contrast in the headline between relationships and armed rescues was unnecessary, for there can be complementary roles for men and women in a rescue. Men need to deal forcefully with pimps while
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Mailbag women need to provide love and support for the “sparrows.” —J C, Everson, Wash.
The very people motivated to address human trafficking may be unwittingly supporting it by using or tolerating pornography. I can’t stress enough how important it is to change the cultural narrative along these lines. —D W, Omro, Wis.
‘Fifty-year calling’ June Cal Thomas is one my favorite columnists. Years ago he was a regular commentator on the radio show, “All Things Considered.” The tension on that show between biblical and secular views of reality was palpable. Eventually Cal separated from NPR and wrote what became my alltime favorite column: “Not Quite All Things Considered.” —W C,, Pike, N.H.
MONTROUIS, HAITI submitted by Naomi Carlson Excellent questions and answers. I have respected Thomas over the years but I was truly shocked when he took issue with Dr. Ben Carson for speaking out at the National Day of Prayer, saying he should apologize. President Obama is the one who should be apologizing.
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June Your comment that “Oklahoma Baptists deployed more than volunteers to the tornado disaster site” failed to include the thousands of Christians of other denominations who contributed, not to mention those who helped just because they are Oklahomans. —T A, Broken Arrow, Okla.
‘Growing in a loophole’ June Health sharing ministries are not “insurance” but they take the place of insurance in people’s lives. These entities depend not just upon the goodwill of other members, which is abundant, but also on the financial projections and relative health of all members, both of
5/10/13 9:31 PM
7/3/13 12:17 PM
which are hard to predict. If they run short of members or have greater costs than members can share, then hospital claims will not be paid and those unlucky few will be left holding the bag.
Health care for people of Biblical faith
—R M, Helena, Mont.
‘Stacking library shelves’ June As a public library director, I appreciated this article. We have added many of the suggested titles to our collection. Please know that while ALA, NEH, and other organizations may have agendas, local librarians still retain jurisdiction over their shelves. What librarians need are more articles like this to provide analysis of controversial topics of interest to both searchers and Christians. —B N, Casper, Wyo.
‘Lessons from a clothes dryer’ June I appreciated Andrée Seu Peterson’s comparison of the decline of America’s morals with the decline of Israel as revealed in the Old Testament. It dismays me to see all the hype about today’s economy while neglecting attention to morality. —J B, Cincinnati, Ohio
‘One monster among many’ May Thank you to Andrée Seu Peterson for her coverage of the Gosnell trial. I have no words—even my prayers are simply tears. —K S, Elgin, Ore.
When we come to Judgment Day, I don’t think that God will be asking those who aborted babies if they did it legally or not. —M O, Elnora, Ind.
LETTERS & PHOTOS Email: mailbag@worldmag.com Write: WORLD Mailbag, PO Box , Asheville, NC - Please include full name and address. Letters may be edited to yield brevity and clarity.
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7/9/13 9:38 AM
Andrée Seu Peterson
Remember the signs Appearances are deceiving in these perilous times
>>
KRIEG BARRIE
L Exodus International became the opposite of what it had been. It went from helping men and women to be free of sexual strongholds to helping them feel they are OK with Christ in their sexual strongholds. The gap between “Christ accepts you as you are and cleanses you of your sins” and “Christ accepts you as you are, period” is the width of the Grand Canyon. But shoehorn enough God-words into the announcement and you will win over the unwary. Like Screwtape said: “Keep everything hazy in his mind.” “With our tongue we will prevail” (Psalm :), boasts the evil one. But temptation never comes in the form you expected; otherwise it would not be temptation. And so the command in Narnia: “Remember, remember, remember the signs. Say them to yourself when you wake in the morning and when you lie down at night. And whatever strange things may happen to you, let nothing turn your mind from following the signs. … The air will thicken. Take great care that it does not confuse your mind. And the signs which you have learned here will not look at all as you expect them to look, when you meet them there. That is why it is so important to know them by heart and pay no attention to appearances. Remember the signs and believe the signs. Nothing else matters.” This column is only about Exodus International as the Declaration of Independence is about taxes. Homosexuality is merely one issue underscoring the necessity of knowing our “signs.” The “signs” are the Scriptures, and if we continue in only a hearsay impression of them, we are no match for Satan’s subtlety. The “strange thing that happened” to a roomful who attended the th Annual Exodus Freedom Conference was the repudiation of a vision that helps people “flee from sexual immorality” ( Corinthians :): “We’re not going to control people anymore,” said director Alan Chambers. “We’re not going to tell them how they should live. We’re not going to be responsible for what they’re doing. … You are not the Holy Spirit. … We are called to proclaim … the riches
Email: aseupeterson@worldmag.com
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of his grace and mercy. … I don’t care what you’re doing—as long as they’re inside the community.” If in our ministry to people “we’re not going to tell them how they should live,” then Francis Schaeffer should have found a better book title than How Should We Then Live?, and Jesus would have done better in his Great Commission than to send us off to the world “teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you” (Matthew :-). Here is God’s own warning: “There will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them” ( Peter :). Who is the one who denies the Master but he who arrives at the conclusion that God’s power to transform is not so great after all? The book of Nehemiah is a case study in the variety of the Enemy’s strategies against the rebuilding project of God’s people. When Satan’s proxies, Sanballat and Tobias, cannot achieve their goal by direct terrorism, they switch to flattery, helpfulness, ingratiation, and intermarriage (Nehemiah :-; :-; :-; :-; :-). Eighteen months ago Exodus International leader Chambers attended the Gay Christian Network Conference. Jesus ate with sinners and transformed their lives, but the process must not work in reverse: “You shall be as my mouth. They shall turn to you, but you shall not turn to them” (Jeremiah :). The GCN conference web page proclaims: “The annual Gay Christian Network conference brings hundreds of brothers and sisters together for fellowship, worship, support, Bible study, and more! Whether you’re LGBT, know someone who is, or just want to learn more, this is an awesome opportunity to seek God together.” Just thought you should know how an enemy talks. The instruments for seduction are not the expected ones—“Bible,” “worship,” “fellowship,” “support,” and “seek God.” If you didn’t know better, you would think these were the good guys. But you need to know better. Read your Bibles. The times are perilous. Remember the signs and believe the signs. Nothing else matters. A
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Marvin Olasky
Occupied territory
Christians working in cultural fields deserve the support of other Christians
>>
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about the truth, or blindly joining a cultural dogpile?” Attacker: “I care about social justice.” TenNapel: “If you don’t believe in my religious freedom, then you don’t believe in social justice.” Attacker: “I have no problem with your religious freedom, as long as it doesn’t harm other people.” TenNapel: “Religious freedom doesn’t mean you get to dictate what other people do.” After being beaten up for months, TenNapel wrote to me last month and asked, “Where are the evangelicals in support of our work? … It’s gotten to where the last people I expect to help me out are evangelicals. I’m probably the most conservative evangelical working in comics, games, and animation, and I might as well be a Pentagram-wearing New Ager. … We on the front line need more cultural support from our people.” True. Graphic novels are clearly important. Publishers Weekly recently surveyed bookstores and librarians across the country and found graphic novels in high demand. They’re checked out from the Cuyahoga County Public Library in Ohio three to four times more often than regular print books. They’re checked out from a Brooklyn junior high school library times more often than print books. “Graphic novels are the most frequently requested material in our Ivy League request system,” said Karen Green, Columbia University’s librarian for ancient and medieval history. Christians working on graphic novels—like Christians in theater (“Christians on Broadway,” Oct. , ), in art, on newspapers, and in many other cultural fields—have to weave their way through the conventions of their genres and what’s biblically appropriate. (Personal experience: When I had fun writing two graphic novels, and Echoes of Eden, I periodically—and with only partial success—had to ask the artist to put a little more clothing on the female characters and reduce their, uh, lung capacity.) C.S. Lewis, in his World War II BBC radio broadcasts that later became Mere Christianity, made contact with his audience by speaking of “enemy-occupied territory—that is what this world is.” That’s what so many parts of our culture are as well. TenNapel and others deserve our support, and our recognition that in occupied territory it’s hard to have clean hands. We all need to keep reading, thinking, and praying. (Footnote: I link on Twitter to interesting news articles from my online reading that often leads to offline praying. If you’d like such reading recommendations, please follow me @MarvinOlasky.) A
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“S C” I asked that in a cover story on graphic novels (book-length comics) five years ago. The June , , article reported on the work of “the most interesting Christian writer and artist in the field,” Doug TenNapel, author and illustrator of Tommysaurus Rex, Earthboy Jacobus, Iron West, Creature Tech, Monster Zoo, and other imaginative works. TenNapel and one of the cartoon characters he created, Earthworm Jim, have lots of fans: Jim, a worm in a robotic suit who fights evil, is also the star of a video game series and toy line. You can get a sense of TenNapel’s puckish humor from the names of his characters: Princess What’s-Her-Name, Queen Slug-for-a-Butt, Bob the Killer Goldfish, Evil the Cat, Henchrat, Major Mucus, and (my favorite) Professor Monkey-For-A-Head. You can read more online about TenNapel, a -foot--inch graduate of Point Loma Nazarene University who’s turning this month. The crucial line of his Wikipedia bio, though, is this: “He has expressed views against same-sex marriage.” In short, he’s agin it, and that degree of political incorrectness may be waylaying his up-to-now successful career. The debate has raged in recent months as TenNapel tried to use Kickstarter (the site that links creators and donors) to fund his new video game. Soon, the boycott was on, with bloggers calling TenNapel “a homophobic, sexist bigot” and also “not a big fan of the right to abortion.” The hits kept coming: “TenNapel, used to be an admirer, but way to cling to a fading zeitgeist. … I regret that you will someday realize that your odious opinions have eternally tainted everything you’ve ever done creatively. … I’m crushed to have ever liked your work.” TenNapel entered into Twitter dialogues with his attackers. In one TenNapel asked, “Do you care more
Email: molasky@worldmag.com
7/3/13 12:32 PM
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7/9/13 9:30 AM
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