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Contents
, / ,
FE AT UR E S
32 The new Egyptian wilderness
COVER STORY As Moses once led his people out of Egypt to Mt. Sinai, church leaders in a post-Mubarak era are discovering how to guide the largest Christian population in the Middle East against new threats and to become good neighbors
40 Blind justice
Resolving the dramatic case of China activist Chen Guangcheng doesn’t take care of thousands more dissidents like him
44 Right turn on Maine
With a pivotal Senate race in November, conservatives are increasingly energized in what has for decades been one of the most liberal states in the nation
DISPATCHES 5 News 12 Human Race 14 Quotables 16 Quick Takes
48 Timeless struggle
A new film about a Catholic uprising against a socialist Mexican government in has surprising resonance in
52 An arm and a leg for a Dinka bride
A Sudanese man will go to a lot of trouble to win a hand in marriage
56 D.C. city limits
The death and life of compassionate conservatism: While a treasured idea became a mess in Washington, it flourished at a small school in Austin
21 40
NOTEBOOK 61 Lifestyle 63 Technology 64 Science 65 Houses of God 66 Sports 67 Money 68 Religion
52
VOICES 3 Joel Belz 18 Janie B. Cheaney 30 Mindy Belz 71 Mailbag 75 Andrée Seu Peterson 76 Marvin Olasky
EGYPT: BELA SZANDELSZKY/AP
ON THE COVER: Church of St. George in Old Coptic Cairo, Egypt: photo by imagebroker.net/SuperStock; For Greater Glory: photo by Hana Matsumoto/ARC Entertainment
44
REVIEWS 21 Movies & TV 24 Books 26 Q&A 28 Music
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KRIEG BARRIE
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Joel Belz
Top of the list
Tell me—briefly—about the most important cultural issue of our time
KRIEG BARRIE
>>
A WORLD dropped by our office a few days ago to give us a sneak preview of a movie, now in the final stages of production, that could provoke a good bit of discussion in the Christian community—and beyond—when it is released this fall to as many as , theaters across the country. The movie is called Last Ounce of Courage and focuses on the fictional mayor of a small California town who decides he’s had enough with the secularists of his community who are zealous to shut down any and all public observances of Christmas. No Christmas tree on the city square? No carols in the junior high’s Christmas pageant? No “Merry Christmas” from a store clerk? The mayor, whose family history includes some military heroism, is ready to show some of that same spunk in the current fracas. I hope Last Ounce of Courage sparks not just a minor but a noisy national conversation when it’s released in September. At its best, that conversation won’t be a narrow debate over how Christmas is publicly noted in modern America; it will instead be a discussion about freedom itself. It won’t focus on whether “Silent Night” is offensive to a few grouchy secularists, but on whether the First Amendment means anything at all any more. Last Ounce of Courage won’t be everybody’s favorite movie; it’s got its hokey spots. But here’s the response it provoked in me: If this particular issue doesn’t get me really riled up, what issue will? If we don’t think we can win something so mild as the political and cultural right to celebrate Christmas publicly, just exactly which battle is it that we think we might win? Too many of us—and I’m including myself—are waiting for the “appropriate” battle that’s never going to happen. With that admission in mind, readers, I’m going to ask you two very specific questions: () If you could identify just one issue that you think is terribly askew in our culture today, and then were granted as a gift from God the ability to set that one issue right, what would it be? What specific cultural victory, if we could win it, would provide the most leverage to produce a society that is closer to the cultural blueprint God has designed for us? Can you identify and summarize that issue in words or less?
Email: jbelz@worldmag.com
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() How has WORLD magazine helped you understand and address that issue better than you might have without our journalistic and editorial efforts? What might we have done better to help you decide which issues are most important—and, on the other hand, which issues least deserve your attention and efforts? What might we have done better to help you determine what specific activities should fill your schedule as a Christian concerned about the culture in which you find yourself? Please be concise—like in a single paragraph. Send me that brief response by email if you can (see below), or address it to me at WORLD, P.O. Box , Asheville, N.C., . WORLD has always enjoyed conversations of this sort with its readers. Just a couple of days before the visit from our friend with a whole movie to let us preview, I’d received a simple but plaintive note from Kimberly McCoy, a WORLD subscriber from Lee’s Summit, Mo. “What kind of action should we be roused to?” she asked, responding to my column in our May issue. “Other than praying and voting, is there some other action you would recommend?” Well, ma’am. I’m glad you aren’t discounting praying and voting. But I would be fascinated to know what “causes” rank highest on your and other readers’ scales—and what you think we might do better to help you spend your “last ounce of courage” toward those important ends. A JUNE 2, 2012
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5/15/12 4:01 PM
CREDIT
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5/10/12 5:26 PM
Dispatches NEWS HUMAN RACE QUOTABLES QUICK TAKES
obama: Kristoffer tripplaar-pool/Getty imaGes • romney: Justine schiavo/the boston Globe via Getty imaGes
RISKY BUSINESS: Obama; Romney with William Bain Jr. in 1990.
Playing the bankruptcy card NEWS: Democrats’ attack on Bain Capital can cut both ways by emiLy beLz
>>
On May 14 the Obama campaign launched a new ad slamming presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney over his tenure as head of Bain Capital, a private equity and investment firm, saying he used it merely for profits. That night President Barack Obama, without noting the irony, attended a fundraiser in the New York home of the president of the world’s largest equity firm, Blackstone. Also not noted: that Jonathan Lavine, one of Obama’s bundlers, or top donors that recruit other donors, is a managing director at Bain Capital.
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But that didn’t stop the president’s campaign from bashing Bain. In Obama’s ad, he enlists GST Steel workers whose plant closed after the company fell into bankruptcy under Bain. “They were trying to figure out ways to eliminate jobs,” one former steelworker says. “They closed it down, filed for bankruptcy without any concern about the families or communities.” “We view Mitt Romney as a job destroyer,” says another. The ad doesn’t mention that the company filed for bankruptcy in 2001—two years after June 2, 2012
WORLD
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Dispatches > News
Zimmerman, who stands accused in the February shooting death of -year-old Trayvon Martin, will face arraignment on May in a Florida court ahead of a second-degree murder trial later this year. Zimmerman’s arrest capped weeks of public outrage after the case of the neighborhood watch volunteer allegedly shooting an unarmed teen became national news.
LOOKING AHEAD Scripps Spelling Bee
This year, youngsters ages to will gather in Washington, D.C., on May for the two-day Scripps National Spelling Bee. According to the Bee, percent of spellers at the Bee receive coaching from their parents with the remaining percent turning to outside coaching to prepare for the televised event.
Cooking hope and change
The publication of first lady Michelle Obama’s cookbook is set for May . Entitled American Grown: The Story of the White House Kitchen Garden and Gardens Across America, the first lady’s book fits in with her campaign against childhood obesity.
Mubarak verdict The verdict in
the nearly yearlong trial of deposed Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak is due June . The former Egyptian leader, who was toppled during the Arab Spring, faces charges of overseeing operations that led to the deaths of those who protested his regime. If convicted, Mubarak could face the death penalty.
Ireland votes
Government officials in Ireland will put ratification of the European Fiscal Treaty to voters on May . The unusual vote means that the Irish Republic will be the only eurozone country to allow its citizens the chance to affirm the treaty written to force EU member states to more tightly control deficit spending.
Organic definition
Beginning June , food carrying an “organic” label sold in either the United States or Europe will undergo a certification process to ensure certain farming methods. The trade deal, signed in February, could be a boon to African organic farmers interested in selling their goods in both markets.
ZIMMERMAN: GARY W. GREEN/ORLANDO SENTINEL/AP • SPELLING BEE: STEFAN ZAKLIN/NEWSCOM • OBAMA: WIN MCNAMEE/GETTY IMAGES • IRELAND: SHAWN POGATCHNIK/AP • MUBARAK: PABLO MARTINEZ MONSIVAIS/AP • ORGANIC: REBECCA BLACKWELL/AP
Romney left the company. Or that Lavine, who has raised over , for the president, according to the Los Angeles Times, was a director at the firm when GST filed bankruptcy. In fact, dozens of U.S. steel companies, including Bethlehem Steel, went bankrupt around the same time under the weight of foreign competition and unionrelated costs. And while Bain had trouble with GST, the investment firm succeeded with Steel Dynamics, a non-union steel company in Indiana. If jobs and the economy are the central themes of the presidential race, Bain Capital will surface often. As one of its founders reaching back to the s, Romney holds his tenure there as part of his economic credentials. The firm invested in a number of businesses that went bankrupt but also made immense wealth off successful investments in companies like Staples and Domino’s Pizza. The Wall Street Journal studied businesses that Bain invested in during Romney’s tenure and found that percent filed for bankruptcy or closed after eight years. It said Bain mostly invested in risky businesses that the firm hoped to turn around, so failure was to be expected, but perhaps occurred at a higher rate than other private equity firms. Meanwhile, the firm gained . billion in those business investments. Romney’s fellow Republicans thought he was vulnerable on this issue back in January, with former contender Newt Gingrich and Rick Perry launching vehement attacks on Romney’s conduct regarding Bain. Romney survived the attacks then (one of the last men standing in the GOP field, Rick Santorum, defended Romney against the Bain attacks), and he seems ready for the attacks now. The Romney campaign on May was ready with an ad of its own, highlighting the growth of Steel Dynamics under Romney’s management. “When others shied away, Mitt Romney’s private sector leadership team stepped in,” the narrator says. And the Romney campaign said it welcomes Obama’s “attempt to pivot back to jobs”—countering with the administration’s bad investments of taxpayer money in now-bankrupt companies like Solyndra. A
Zimmerman arraignment George
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5/15/12 4:48 PM
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5/9/12 10:29 AM
Dispatches > News
Surrendered to God’s will Condemned Iranian pastor Youcef Nadarkhani faces a new blow: In early May, an Iranian judge sentenced the pastor’s attorney to nine years in prison. The lawyer, Mohammad Ali Dadkhah, told The Guardian that a judge said he must begin serving a nine-year prison sentence soon for charges that include acting against national security. Authorities jailed Nadarkhani in 2009 and have sentenced him to death for practicing Christianity and renouncing Islam. DIRe SITUATION: Protesters Jay Sekulow of the call for nadarkhani’s American Center for release during a march in Law and Justice hamburg, Germany. (ACLJ) said a prison sentence for the attorney makes Nadarkhani’s situation “more dire than ever.” ACLJ also published an open letter that Nadarkhani reportedly penned from jail on May 7. The pastor wrote that he’s in good health, and said: “I need to remind my beloveds, though my trial has been so long, and as in the flesh I wish these days to end, yet I have surrendered myself to God’s will.”
8
Personal attack Sudan’s military continued bombing its own citizens in the Nuba Mountains near the disputed borderline with South Sudan. In early May, the bombs found an American target: Ryan Boyette, an American living in the Nuba Mountains with his Sudanese wife, reported that an Antonov plane flew over his house on May 11 and dropped six bombs. He said one villager suffered minor injuries. Boyette, a former aid worker, has been outspoken about the Nuba bombings in recent months, and said he wasn’t surprised the government targeted him: “What surprises me more is that the international community is doing nothing to stop the bombings that are affecting the lives of so many people in Nuba.” Andrew Natsios, former U.S. envoy to Sudan and head of USAID, has called for the United States to arm South Sudan with American anti-aircraft weapons. Franklin bOmbeD: boyette and his wife; a Graham, president of Samaritan’s building destroyed by a bomb Purse, has called for the U.S. military dropped by the sudanese in the to bomb Sudanese airstrips. nuba Mountains in april.
no-show
Russian President Vladimir Putin began his third term as president by snubbing his Western counterpart, President Barack Obama. Putin decided to be a no-show at a May 18-19 summit of the Group of Eight nations—a first since Russia was invited to join the G-8 in 1998—saying the United States had “nothing to propose.” Putin let it be known that Obama’s criticism of Russian elections plus lack of progress on a missile defense shield were reasons to stay home.
sudan: GORan TOMaseVIC/ReuTeRs/LandOV • andeRsOn: handOuT • bOyeTTe: handOuT • GeRMany: aGeLIKa WaRMuTh/ePa/LandOV • PuTIn: aLexandeR ZeMLIanIChenKO/aP CREDIT
Four members of a Teen Mania team died when their small private plane crashed and caught fire in a field in southeastern Kansas on May 11. The plane took off from Tulsa, Okla., on its way to Council Bluffs, Iowa, for the final in a series of Acquire the Fire youth rallies. Three men on the team, including the pilot, died immediately. The fourth, Austin Anderson, who served two tours of duty in Iraq and only recently joined Teen Mania, died of burn injuries the following day. A fifth passenger and the only survivor, Hannah Luce, the daughter of Teen Mania founder Ron Luce, suffered burns over a quarter of her body and underwent multiple surgeries at a Kansas City hospital. Four were recent graduates of Oral Roberts University and one an instructer there.
WORLD June 2, 2012
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WOOden: RObeRT WILLeTT/The neWs & ObseRVeR/aP • CLInTOn: sTePhen LOVeKIn/COMMOn sense MedIa/GeTTy IMaGes • CaRTeR: JaVIeR GaLeanO /aP • bush: dan GLeITeR/The PaTRIOT-neWs/aP
Man knows not his tiMe
The politics of marriage
AMENDMENT ONE: Dr. Patrick Wooden and his wife Pamela celebrate as North Carolina becomes the latest state to add a marriage amendment to its Constitution.
Black leaders say Obama campaign shouldn’t discount a backlash
SUDAN: GORAN TOMASEVIC/REUTERS/LANDOV • ANDERSON: HANDOUT • BOYETTE: HANDOUT • GERMANY: AGELIKA WARMUTH/EPA/LANDOV • PUTIN: ALEXANDER ZEMLIANICHENKO/AP CREDIT
WOODEN: ROBERT WILLETT/THE NEWS & OBSERVER/AP • CLINTON: STEPHEN LOVEKIN/COMMON SENSE MEDIA/GETTY IMAGES • CARTER: JAVIER GALEANO /AP • BUSH: DAN GLEITER/THE PATRIOT-NEWS/AP
W P B O’s comments May that he supports gay marriage, his now explicit position on the controversial topic could energize his base, but it could also energize backers of traditional marriage—who remain a strong force despite growing support for same-sex marriage. The swing state of North Carolina overwhelmingly passed a marriage amendment the day before his remarks, and other states have passed similar constitutional amendments. Several more will vote on marriage measures this year. Opposition to same-sex marriage is strong in the black community: Heavily African-American counties in North Carolina overwhelmingly approved the traditional marriage amendment. Harry Jackson, a black pastor who has fought efforts to legalize same-sex marriage around the country, said Democrats shouldn’t be overconfident in the African-American vote: “Although many political analysts believe this announcement will blow over by November, they seem to forget that President Bush won Florida and Ohio in because of a to percent shift in the black vote alone.” Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney does not support the legalization of same-sex
BEWARE BLASPHEMY Kuwait’s parliament on May passed a law making blasphemy punishable by death and broadening the definition for the offense. Under it, cursing Allah, the prophet Muhammad, his wives, other key Islamic figures, or the Quran became capital offenses. The Gulf nation and U.S. ally has a majority Muslim population, with about percent Christians— many of them expatriate workers.
QUITE A PERK Imagine: Upon your retirement the government agrees to use taxpayer dollars to pay many of your everyday expenses. That’s the benefit currently enjoyed by the living former presidents:
, for Bill Clinton’s rent
, for Jimmy Carter’s postage
, for George W. Bush’s phone bills
And that’s just . U.S taxpayers that year paid more than million in miscellaneous expenses of the surviving former U.S. presidents, in addition to a pension and protection. Now a bipartisan group of lawmakers, including Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, are pushing for change. The new bill would end taxpayer-paid expenses for former presidents making more than , a year. It would also limit presidents earning less than that to a , annual pension and , in annual expenses. “Nobody wants our former presidents living the remainder of their lives destitute,” Chaffetz said. “But the fact is none of our former presidents are poor.” Last year Clinton hauled in more than million in speaking fees alone while George W. Bush made more: million for his speeches. With that kind of cash they ought to be able to pay the rent and cover the phone bill.
WORLDmag.com: Your online source for today’s news, Christian views
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marriage or civil unions if they are the same as marriage. But he believes gay couples should be allowed hospital visitation rights and domestic partner benefits. He reaffirmed his position after Obama’s statements. Citing his Christian faith, Obama announced in an ABC News interview that he personally supports gay marriage. But he said he believed states should decide the issue rather than the federal government— something North Carolina did in a May referendum that amended the state constitution to say marriage is between one man and one woman. “When we think about our faith, the thing at root that we think about is, not only Christ sacrificing Himself on our behalf, but it’s also the Golden Rule—treat others the way you would want to be treated,” he said, explaining his new position. Previously he supported same-sex civil unions, but not marriage. Back in as a Senate candidate, Obama cited his faith as his reason for opposing same-sex marriage: “I do believe that tradition and my religious beliefs say that marriage is something sanctified between a man and a woman.”
JUNE 2, 2012
WORLD
5/15/12 4:31 PM
Dispatches > News BANNING SEX ORIENTATION THERAPY
When presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney took the podium on May to address Liberty University’s graduates, Chancellor Jerry Falwell Jr. introduced him as “the next president of the United States.” Falwell stopped short of endorsing Romney but left no question about his hopes for the November election. The welcome Romney received in Lynchburg, Va., could signal a thaw in his relationship with evangelical Republicans, a faction of the party that has been hesitant so far to embrace the Mormon candidate. Until his commencement speech, Romney did little to embrace them. But before an audience estimated at over ,—perhaps the largest concentration of evangelical voters likely to be gathered before the November election—Romney insisted that despite their differences, Mormons and evangelicals could unite in their common commitment to family, faith, work, and service. “People of different faiths, like yours and mine, sometimes wonder where we can meet in common purpose, when there are so many differences in creed and theology,” Romney told the , graduates present. “Surely the answer is that we can meet in service, in shared moral convictions.”
The ouster of moderate Indiana Sen. Richard Lugar, one of the longest-serving members of the Senate, proved that the Tea Party movement still has plenty of muscle, despite media reports to the contrary. Lugar, a six-term senator firmly entrenched in the GOP’s establishment, lost in a May primary to Richard Mourdock,, the state’s treasurer. Mourdock received the endorsement of Indiana Tea Party groups as well as national Tea Party organizations like FreedomWorks and the Tea Party Express. Mourdock’s surprise win happened in a year that the National Journal proclaimed that “Failed Candidates and Faded Icons Reflect Tea Party Decline,” while MSNBC displayed the banner “weak tea” on screen
as talking heads debated whether the Tea Party’s influence is waning. Despite the seniority he enjoys in the Senate, Lugar, , got in trouble with Indiana Republicans for voting in favor of the Democrats’ Budget Control Act during last year’s debt ceiling debate, for bank and auto bailouts, and for a bill that grants citizenship to the children of illegal immigrants. Mourdock also went after Lugar for selling his Indianapolis home in and moving to McLean, Va. Lugar owns a farm in Marion County, Ind., with no house on the property. “Sen. Lugar has sided too many times with the Democrats,” Stacy Rutkowski of Valparaiso told the Associated Press after voting for Mourdock. “He’s been there six terms, and it’s time for some new blood.”
WORLD JUNE 2, 2012
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LAPTOP: ANDREW RICH/ISTOCK • CARSON: EMORY UNIVERSITY
Romney’s date with evangelicals
ROMNEY: JARED SOARES/GETTY IMAGES • LIEU: RICH PEDRONCELLI/AP • MOURDOCK: JOHN TERHUNE/JOURNAL & COURIER/AP CREDIT
A California bill banning reparative therapy—a counseling method that tries to help a person change sexual orientations—passed its final Senate committee May . But opponents say the proposed state law prohibits speech, violates privacy rights, and creates unintended consequences. The bill would prohibit reparative therapy for minors and force adults to sign a release form stating that the counseling is ineffectual and possibly dangerous. The bill’s author, Sen. Ted Lieu, D-Torrance, called reparative therapy “scientifically ineffective” and responsible for causing a number of ills, including “extreme depression and guilt” that sometimes leads to suicide. But the Pacific Justice Institute claims the proposed ban is unconstitutional because it prohibits an entire category of speech between therapists and minor patients.
Uncelebrated celebrity surgeon
Emory profs complain over Ben Carson commencement BY MARVIN OLASKY
ROMNEY: JARED SOARES/GETTY IMAGES • LIEU: RICH PEDRONCELLI/AP • MOURDOCK: JOHN TERHUNE/JOURNAL & COURIER/AP CREDIT
LAPTOP: ANDREW RICH/ISTOCK • CARSON: EMORY UNIVERSITY
IT’S THE VIEW THAT COUNTS The New York Court of Appeals ruled on May that viewing online child porn is not a crime. That was the verdict in People v. Kent, a case centering on James Kent, a professor who possessed files of child pornography. The judges convicted Kent of two counts of procuring child pornography and counts of possessing on his hard drive depictions of a sexual act performed by a child. The judges, though, ruled that photos in Kent’s cache did not count as “possession,” only viewing, which the judges said is not a criminal act. “Merely viewing web images of child pornography does not, absent other proof, constitute either possession or procurement within the meaning of our Penal Law,” the opinion stated. State Sen. Martin Golden, a Republican, and Assemblyman Joseph Lentol, a Democrat, have drafted bills that would criminalize all accessing and possessing child porn with intent to view.
Emory University should have had bragging rights for this commencement season: Internationally renowned neurosurgeon and humanitarian Ben Carson delivered the keynote address at the university’s th commencement on May . Carson (see “Second opinion,” April ) has directed pediatric neurosurgery at the Johns Hopkins Children’s Center for more than years. He overcame a hard childhood in inner-city Detroit and has become particularly famous for his work in separating twins with conjoined heads. In he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor in the United States. His fifth book, America the Beautiful, is now out. In announcing the honorary degree and keynote speech that Carson would receive and give, Emory President Jim Wagner said, “Few men or women have demonstrated to so inspiring a degree the transformational effect of liberal learning and the humanities. Dr. Carson has transformed lives both inside the operating room and beyond.” But campus bragging about commencement stopped early in May once many faculty members and students learned that Carson has faith in Christ and disdain for evolution. Four Emory biology professors complained to the school newspaper: “Carson argues that ... there are no transitional fossils that provide evidence for the evolution of humans from a common ancestor with other apes ... and that life is too
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complex to have originated by the natural process of evolution.” He’s right on both counts, but the professors—joined by other faculty members as well as many researchers and students— stated flatly that Carson is “incorrect. … The theory of evolution is as strongly supported as the theory of gravity and the theory that infectious diseases are caused by microorganisms. Dismissing evolution disregards the importance of science and critical thinking to society.” Carson has made enormous advances in medicine, and his disbelief in evolution has not hampered him. If he had a similar disbelief in gravity or germ theory, it’s doubtful that he could have been such an innovator, since I suspect it’s hard to operate when both doctors and patients are floating gravityless—and I suspect patients don’t survive if their surgeons don’t scrub. Carson’s problem is not a refusal to engage in critical thinking. His thought crime is critically thinking about an academic orthodoxy. The professors particularly complained about the connections Carson makes between evolutionary theory and ethics: If we’re merely the result of evolution, he has said, “You don’t have to abide by a set of moral codes, you determine your own conscience based on your own desires.” But the history of the past century, and the lifestyle of many campuses, shows that he’s right.
JUNE 2, 2012
WORLD
5/15/12 2:17 PM
Dispatches > Human Race
Actor George Lindsey, who played gas station attendant Goober Pyle on The Andy Griffith Show, died May at age . Lindsey, a devoted fundraiser for the Alabama Special Olympics, also appeared as the beanie-wearing Goober on Mayberry R.F.D. and Hee Haw.
victimization claptrap.” Schaefer Riley, author of God on the Quad (“Mission to Blue America,” March , ), was a token conservative among a predominantly non-conserva-
Liz McMillen initially defended the post, reader criticism spurred her to fire Schaefer Riley and apologize to readers for distressing and betraying them.
tive group of bloggers writing for The Chronicle’s “Brainstorm: Ideas and Culture” blog. Her April post critiqued black studies dissertations, concluding that “there are legitimate debates about the problems that plague the black community. … But it’s clear that they’re not happening in black studies departments.” Although editor
Television producer Bob Stewart, creator of popular game shows including The Price Is Right and To Tell the Truth, died May at age .
The Chronicle of Higher Education fired talented journalist Naomi Schaefer Riley for pointing out in a blog post that many black studies dissertations are “left-wing
WORLD JUNE 2, 2012
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An unnamed buyer purchased Norwegian artist Edvard Munch’s “The Scream” for a record . million at a Sotheby’s auction on May . It is the highest sum ever paid for art at auction, topping the . million spent for a Picasso two years ago.
As part of her Diamond Jubilee celebration, Queen Elizabeth II is giving away , copies of the New Testament. Biblica (formerly the International Bible Society) developed the special edition, which churches and schools will help distribute through early June. Although church attendance in the U.K. is at an all-time low, Bible distributors say they hope recipients of the Bibles will be more inclined to open and read the queen’s commemorative edition.
SENDAK: MARY ALTAFFER/AP • LINDSEY: REED SAXON/AP • RILEY: HANDOUT • SCREAM: LEWIS WHYLD/PA/AP • QUEEN: PAUL GROVER/WPA POOL/GETTY IMAGES CREDIT
Children’s book author and illustrator Maurice Sendak, best known for his Caldecott Medal winner Where the Wild Things Are, died May at age . The often darker themes in Sendak’s books appealed to generations of children coming to terms with their fears, but also reflected Sendak’s troubled heart. “I want to be alone and work until the day my head hits the drawing table and I’m dead. Kaput,” he said last year. “Everything is over. Everything that I called living is over. I’m very, very much alone. I don’t believe in heaven or hell or any of those things.”
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TOM JENSEN of the leftleaning polling firm Public Policy Polling in a tweet after an amendment defining marriage as between a man and a woman passed on May in North Carolina by a -point margin. The margin was larger than polls from Public Policy Polling and other groups had predicted.
“I’m told that her tribal name is Tells Tall Tales.” Commentator and columnist CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER on U.S. Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren, who for years claimed minority status as a law school professor on the basis of unproven “family lore” about a great-great-great grandmother who was Cherokee Indian. Warren is challenging U.S. Sen. Scott Brown, R-Mass.
“We’ve actually lived the last years in this country off the next , and the bill’s due.” U.S. Sen. TOM COBURN, R-Okla., and author of The Debt Bomb, on the national debt.
“The fact that a false, misleading smear campaign can destroy a company’s reputation overnight should disturb us all.” Gov. TERRY BRANSTAD, R-Iowa, on an announcement by Beef Products Inc. that it will close processing plants in Waterloo, Iowa; Garden City, Kan.; and Amarillo, Texas, on May after controversy erupted over its beef product called “pink slime” by critics.
“$86.9 million” THE SELLING PRICE for Mark Rothko’s painting “Orange, Red, Yellow” during a May auction at Christie’s in New York. The price was a record for a work of contemporary art.
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“Hate to say it but I don’t believe polls showing majority support for gay marriage nationally. Any time there’s a vote it doesn’t back it up.”
WORLD JUNE 2, 2012
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5/15/12 10:01 AM
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Dispatches > Quick Takes -
She might not have posted a time in the official record book, but no one will soon forget Claire Lomas’ completion of the London Marathon on May . The marathon officially began on April , meaning Lomas, a -year-old British woman, finished the .-mile race in days. Which isn’t bad considering a horse riding accident in left Lomas paralyzed from the chest down. With help from a , bionic suit, Lomas walked over . miles each day. Marathon officials said she couldn’t officially receive her completion medal, since race rules require runners to finish the marathon on the same day that it starts. However, Richard Branson, whose Virgin Group sponsored the event, awarded her with a trophy anyway.
Huge traffic jams are so unusual in Auburn, Calif., that when law enforcement spotted a nearly quarter-mile tie-up along I- in the northern California town, they knew something was wrong. A computer glitch at the Placer County Courthouse meant that , of the city’s , residents received jury summons on May . Officials at the courthouse apologized profusely to the frustrated citizens as they trickled in and learned they were not needed that day.
WORLD JUNE 2, 2012
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It won’t be long until the Popa Urria family receives a deluge of letters from advice-seeking parents. That’s because at years, months old, their son Anthony has posted a staggering on an official IQ test. With a score that rivals Albert Einstein and Stephen Hawking, young Anthony has already been accepted into Mensa, the international high IQ society—all before fully completing potty training. His parents say the Calgary, Canada, child could identify letters in the alphabet before learning how to speak and can easily solve a -piece puzzle.
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5/15/12 10:05 AM
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It’s not being generous if it’s with other people’s money. Police say a -year-old Montreal man robbed a pair of local convenience stores and a video rental company on May , walked across the street to a bar, and offered to buy all the patrons free drinks with the roughly , in stolen loot. After seeing police combing the neighborhood outside, one bartender grew suspicious of the unusual bar patron and alerted authorities, who quickly arrested the man.
A bank error in his favor made one German man million richer when his bank accidentally deposited the massive sum into his bank account overnight last year. Identified in German media only as Michael H., the man discovered the error the next day but didn’t try to fix it. Instead he tried transferring about million of the sum to another bank account. Eventually his bank, Comdirect, managed to recover the vast amount from the German man. But a German court ruled on May that the bank owed the German man interest on the huge deposit that he held for a day— interest that totaled more than ,.
-- A bouncer working the door at the Union Bar in Iowa City, Iowa, wasn’t fooled when an underage University of Iowa student tried to use a stolen ID to gain entrance on May . That’s because the card that -year-old Stephen J. Fiorella handed the bouncer happened to be the bouncer’s own driver’s license. The unidentified bouncer had reported his driver’s license and other wallet contents stolen in February. Police quickly arrested Fiorella and charged him with fifth-degree theft and the unlawful use of another’s ID.
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This year’s senior class at Brookwood High in Gwinnett County, Ga., has a lot of brotherly and sisterly love. The one class at that one school boasts sets of twins, a mix of identical and fraternal pairs. “You kind of wonder what was in the water back then,” Brookwood softball coach Kent Doehrman told a local Fox affiliate. Whatever it was, it may have also been in the water two years later in Illinois. The sophomore class at Niles West High School in Skokie, Ill., reportedly has sets of twins.
Residents of a city in Kyrgyzstan are angry at their city for allowing their eternal flame memorial to go out—all because the city failed to pay a gas bill. The city of Bishkek built the memorial in as a tribute to Soviet soldiers who died during World War II and kept it burning continuously until April . Then after failing to receive payment on the , bill, the local gas company cut off the gas, extinguishing the memorial flame. Local residents were fired up. “The eternal flame must be eternal. It must burn day and night and remind us of our sacrifice for victory,” local poet and World War II veteran Sooronbay Jusuyev, , told The Washington Times. “We should be ashamed in front of our neighbors that we let the fire go out.”
Newsmen say that when a dog bites a man, it’s not news. But if a man bites a dog, that’s a story. But Analise Garner has taken the symbolic headline to a new level: Woman bites dog. Police say the Illinois native, , bit her pet bulldog at least three times when she came home drunk from a night of underage drinking on April . When police arrived, they arrested Garner for battery (she bit her mother too), as well as animal cruelty and underage drinking. Authorities say the dog should recover just fine. JUNE 2, 2012
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WORLD
5/15/12 10:06 AM
Janie B. Cheaney
The salt and light company Conforming to our Savior, Christians will have some kind of effect on the world
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WORLD JUNE 2, 2012
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But the world has always, in every generation, been deeply hostile to Christ. His call to self-denial is never in fashion; His shameless sacrifice for people who didn’t ask for it is never good taste. When churches are full it’s generally because church is the thing to do. When family values are practiced it’s because society understands the benefit. And when cultures slide into obvious depravity, as in Georgian England and Weimar Germany, it’s because certain restraints have been removed and people are showing their true colors. That’s not to say that Christianity has no influence at all during virtuous eras; of course it does. Christianity has some influence even today. When God Talks Back (Knopf) records the attempts of Harvard-educated anthropologist T.M. Luhrmann to understand “the American Evangelical Relationship with God.” She spent four years as a member of two Vineyard Fellowship churches, one in Chicago and one in Palo Alto. She concluded that the Christians she came to know and love were naïve in their appropriation of God, but their conviction nevertheless charmed her. The same goes for Josie Bloss, who writes fiction for young adults. She began trolling the blogs of homeschooled young ladies because she couldn’t believe anyone actually lived or thought that way. But, to her surprise, and to the surprise of the protagonist of her YA novel Faking Faith, she found herself drawn to these girls. Their warmth and stability held a genuine, wistful appeal in a world of brokenness. That attraction was not enough to convert either author to Christ. While a Christian lifestyle may sometimes appeal, Christ commands. His call to self-denial is not just unpopular; it’s impossible. And so is being salt and light—until you notice that He didn’t say to be. He said, you are. As we conform to Christ, we are a stench to those who are perishing, and a fragrance to those who are being saved. Showing Christ is our commission, and what that does to the culture is up to God. A
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I ’ of the world, why do I feel like a dim bulb? If I’m supposed to be the salt of the earth, why do I taste like cream of wheat? Since the s Christians have been deploring the state of the culture and solutions, but the culture keeps getting worse. Does anyone have a clue how salt and light works? Three models within living memory are the Godly Voters, the Culture Warriors, and the Christian Incubators. The first of those developed in the mid-s and flowered with Jerry Falwell’s Moral Majority and the election of Ronald Reagan. Reagan was the Christian Conservative’s dream: articulate, winsome, focused. And he wrested America back from the brink of socialism and set us on a steady course for the future … not. The Culture Warriors surged in the s, with organizations like the American Family Association, the Family Research Council, and CLEAR-TV. They called for boycotts and protests and better alternatives to the mass-media rot, and their efforts ushered in a new era of good role models and decent, family entertainment … ahem. The Christian Incubators were humming by the early s. Since secular leaders let us down, we would grow our own. The home-schooled generation would arise as social and political leaders, models of stability and virtue. Enough of them would turn the culture around … maybe. It’s too early to say, but healthy skepticism is advised. Some Christians throw up their hands and head for the hills—sometimes literally. Others retreat into a Jesus & Me religion, letting the world go its merry way to hell. But that salt-and-light thing still makes us uneasy. Maybe Jesus should have told us how? Perhaps we should stop confusing a Christian lifestyle with the Christian life. When we look back nostalgically at the s, or celebrate the Greatest Generation, or laud our American Christian heritage, we overlook one critical distinction: The world has sometimes been friendly with the church.
Email: jcheaney@worldmag.com
5/14/12 1:49 PM
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5/9/12 10:32 AM
“It’s like NPR from a Christian worldview.”
What you can expect
Trevin Wax, blogger, Kingdom People (The Gospel Coalition)
News review: Top stories of the week, in the United States and around the world
The World and Everything in It
Special features like “The Olasky Interview,” “Let the Candidates Speak,” and “The History Book” Commentary: Original reflections by Joel Belz, Andrée Seu, and Janie Cheaney, and other biblical worldview thinkers In-depth audio treatments of feature stories from the print magazine Culture: Film and television reviews by Megan Basham, books by Susan Olasky, and music by Arsenio Orteza Political roundup: Analysis of the candidates and the issues — plus key state and local initiatives Thorough coverage of life issues, education, the economy, and the law News of the church and God’s people working in the world
A weekly radio program from World News Group
Check radio listings, listen online, and share favorite segments via Facebook and Twitter at worldandeverything.com. Listen anytime, anywhere with free podcast subscriptions on iTunes.
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“The World and Everything in It” debuted August 6 on two dozen radio affiliates. Since then, TW&E has grown to 180 stations, and airs network-wide Sunday nights at 6 (central) on Bott Radio Network. This thoughtful and enjoyable week-in-review program features news and analysis from the WORLD editorial team and interviews with top newsmakers—with the journalistic depth you’ve come to expect from WORLD.
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5/9/12 10:34 AM
Reviews MOVIES & TV BOOKS Q&A MUSIC
Righteous rebels? MOVIE: For Greater Glory should prompt Christians to consider how we would respond to similar persecution BY MEGAN BASHAM
HANA MATSUMOTO/ARC ENTERTAINMENT
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O that may strike viewers while watching For Greater Glory, an epic-scale historical production, is, did the producers skew the facts of the film to score political points? The second will be, because if they didn’t, how have I never heard about this before? In state hostility toward Catholics reaches a fever pitch in Mexico. Using armed federal forces to carry out his orders, President Plutarco Elias Calles begins seizing church property, shutting down religious schools, expelling priests, and demanding that Christians publicly renounce their faith in Jesus Christ or face execution. This all, brief expository dialogue explains, follows years of eroding religious liberties as a jealous state tries to usurp the church’s role. Perhaps only fans of Graham Greene’s novel, The Power and the Glory, will recognize the story line thus far. Yet if these events seem to fit a little too neatly into modern narrative, seem almost too ready-made for current controversies over what the government can demand of Christian organizations and individuals, a few minutes’ worth of research confirms the essential truth of the story. The secular Mexican government did indeed GLORY DAYS: begin, in the name of Andy Garcia as separation of church and Gen. Enrique state, by outlawing any Gorostieta. JUNE 2, 2012
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WORLD
5/15/12 2:56 PM
Reviews > Movies & TV
WORLD JUNE 2, 2012
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MOVIE
Dark Shadows BY MICHAEL LEASER
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E, have proven to be Johnny Depp’s forte, and his sometimes amusing, often disturbing, occasionally heartbreaking portrayal of the cursed and conflicted Barnabas Collins adds another such performance to his body of work. Dark Shadows, inspired by the late ’s/early ’s TV series, marks Depp’s eighth collaboration with director Tim Burton. (Unlike the series, the film is rated PG- for sexual content, comic horror violence, some drug use, smoking, and language.) Heir to a wealthy fisheries family in late th century Maine, Collins spurns the attentions of his servant Angelique (Eva Green) and marries the young, angelic Josette DuPres (Bella Heathcote). Unbeknownst to Collins, Angelique happens to be a witch and retaliates by slaying Collins’ parents and his lovely bride, turning Collins into a vampire, and burying him deep underground. Fast forward to , when construction workers find Collins’ casket and release him into a world where his estate is rundown and occupied by his dysfunctional descendants and Angelique is head of Angel Bay, one of the country’s most successful fisheries, which has essentially put the Collins family out of business. As this th century gentleman vampire attempts to restore his family’s company, his interactions with his descendants and surroundings offer ample opportunity for humor. When he first meets his -year-old female relation Carolyn (Chloë Grace Moretz), her attire leads him to think she’s a prostitute. In another scene, he mistakes the McDonald’s golden arches for a symbol of Mephistopheles. As a vampire who desperately wishes for mortality, who declares that he loses a piece of his soul every time he kills someone to feed, Collins possesses a heightened sense of evil and morality. His attempts to court the young governess Victoria (also portrayed by Heathcote) tragically infect his thinking, though, when their conversation veers into self-indulgent relativism. Victoria declares that as long as something makes you happy, it matters not what you believe. Collins has clearly not considered this concept before, and the seed planted leads him to wrestle with what was previously unimaginable: that he could let his own happiness supersede deep convictions. See all our movie reviews at WORLDmag.com/movies
5/15/12 2:57 PM
THE BEST EXOTIC MARIGOLD HOTEL: FOX SEARCHLIGHT PICTURES • GIRL IN PROGRESS: LIONSGATE
mere antagonism toward the church can turn to outright aggression to seem like a warning. But it would be hard for any believers paying attention to recent events not to shiver when Calle’s Federalis offer the Cristeros clemency if only they will declare, “Death to Christ the King, long live the federal government.” This doctrine in particular is so prescient and disquieting, it almost serves to justify every effort the Cristeros take to depose it. Almost. Horrific as Calles’ actions are, the rebels’ response may be troubling for Christian viewers. Neither Christ nor his disciples called for violent or belligerent rebellion to the entrenched government. There aren’t early church examples of martyrs taking to battlefields before mighty Rome took their lives (that type of rallying seems more in line with Simon the Zealot before his encounter with Christ). On the flip side, the same logic could be used to argue against the cause of the American revolutionaries. And certainly citizens of an established nation have some responsibility for seeing that nation preserved as founded for future generations. How Christians should respond individually and collectively to state oppression has for most of U.S. history been purely hypothetical. But as For Greater Glory demonstrates, the winds of ruling restraint can change quickly and we must prayerfully, meditatively consider what Jesus would have of us when they do. A
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teaching of God or religion in schools and prohibiting priests and ministers from proselytizing outside of church buildings. It did, in fact, move on to massacring Catholics. This eventually prompted networks of Catholic mothers, fathers, lay priests, and even some outlaws to join together to work secretly against Calles. And this network did, at last, hire a renowned general to lead them to war against their own government, taking up arms in the name of Cristo Rey. (See “Timeless struggle,” p. .) Given the persecution that sparked their actions and their bravery in the face of the administration’s might, it’s impossible not to root for the Cristeros, as the rebels call themselves, and to feel inspired by their passion and commitment. (The bloody punishments they endure at the hands of Calles’ forces account for the film’s R rating). Andy Garcia, who plays Gen. Enrique Gorostieta, the military mastermind the rebels hire to lead them, is particularly effective as an agnostic man of action. Though at first he fights for liberty in general, the example of a -year-old boy who will not bow to the golden calf of the state soon has him considering that religious liberty is the first and most important freedom of all as all others spring from it. Director Dean Wright maintains that he didn’t orchestrate the film’s release to coincide with fights over contraception and healthcare mandates or for its depiction of how quickly a government’s
MOVIE
Girl in Progress BY ALICIA M. COHN
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L is described as the “point of no return” in the movie Girl in Progress. That is when—according to the title’s MOVIE eponymous “Girl,” Ansiedad (Cierra Ramirez)—maturity will kick in. “Being a kid is stupid and I’m moving on,” Ansiedad declares, inspired by English class to launch a journey—also, the plot—through BY STEPHANIE PERRAULT the “rites of passage” required by all coming-of-age stories. Ansiedad is the product of T B E M H (PG- for brief language single mother Grace (Eva and sexuality) ought to have been an excellent movie. Its Mendes), who got pregnant young star-studded British cast—including Judi Dench, Bill Nighy, and and leads an irresponsible Dame Maggie Smith—plus its humorous premise that even old lifestyle, trapped by blue-collar age can be outsourced to India should have equaled a hilarious jobs and bad boyfriends (including and poignant look at the trials of aging and the joy of living. a married one). Grace has turned Unfortunately, it didn’t. her daughter into a quasi In this frequently boring and occasionally funny story, seven Cinderella, dependent on her to British retirees head to India in hopes of finding a cheaper and clean up after Grace’s late nights more adventuresome retirement. The characters include a and fend for herself at dinner. random sampling of many adult communities—the grizzled Director Patricia Riggen keeps grandpa who fudges his age for his speed dating profile, the recent the movie aware of its own widow whose husband squandered their wealth, the unhappily stereotypes. Grace, who is married couple who brag about their years of marriage but Cierra Ramirez described as “a big flake can’t bear each other’s company, the racist battle-ax in need of a and Eva Mendes sometimes,” is more in denial than hip replacement, the cougar on the hunt for a rich bachelor, and malicious. Though the movie does the linen-suited judge in search of a piece from his past. not explore Grace’s past decisions in any depth, Ansiedad’s existence Dissatisfied or unable to afford retirement in England, they and Grace’s scrimping to pay her daughter’s way through private stumble upon an advertisement for “The Best Exotic Marigold school demonstrate at least a distracted maternal devotion. Hotel for the Elderly and Beautiful.” After a long and harried trip Ansiedad’s “moving on” mission runs to India, they discover their Indian host, perilously close to trouble, but her best friend Sunny, exaggerated their accommodations. Tavita (Raini Rodriguez) is actually making The walls are crumbling and birds inhabit reckless decisions while Ansiedad only the dust-crusted rooms, but the elderly pretends. Consequences for Tavita stay cadre can’t easily hop a jet back to London, - mostly offscreen, but Ansiedad’s so they stay. according to Box Office Mojo confrontation with the seriousness of sexual The noisy, chaotic, colorful world they CAUTIONS: Quantity of sexual (S), violent (V), and foul-language (L) content on a - intercourse earns the otherwise mostly mild find themselves in is invigorating to some scale, with high, from kids-in-mind.com movie’s PG- rating (drinking and infidelity and a torment to others. Predictably, those are also portrayed). who embrace the change thrive, but those S V L 1̀ The Avengers* PG-13............. Slapped in the face with the news that her who don’t become smaller people. If that’s 2̀ Dark Shadows* PG-13........... daughter is now consciously repeating her not boring enough, director John Madden 3̀ Think Like a Man PG-13 ...... own past mistakes, Grace makes some rapid throws politics into the picture via the retired 4̀ The Hunger Games * PG-13.. progress of her own. In the end, the title might judge (Tom Wilkinson)—a closet homosexual 5̀ The Lucky One* PG-13 ......... describe either of these two characters. who reveals his orientation to his new 6̀ The Five-Year Girl in Progress is a love story about friends and enlists their help in finding his Engagement R........................ mother and daughter. It makes the point long, lost love interest. 7̀ The Pirates! Band that observation and presence are two After two hours, the plodding tale of Misfits* G.............................. indispensable qualities of a loving mercifully ends having euthanized the original 8̀ The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel* PG-13 ................................ relationship—a good lesson for a -minute punchy premise and killed any interest we 9̀ Chimpanzee* G ...................... movie, but not a brilliant one. might have had in these characters. 10 Safe R ........................................... `
The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel
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THE BEST EXOTIC MARIGOLD HOTEL: FOX SEARCHLIGHT PICTURES • GIRL IN PROGRESS: LIONSGATE
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*Reviewed by WORLD
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JUNE 2, 2012
WORLD
5/15/12 2:58 PM
Reviews > Books
A closer look at the wisdom and ideas of three great theologians BY MARVIN OLASKY
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I also owe a lot to Jonathan Edwards, so I have been happily dipping into the Butterfield pages of The Theology of Jonathan Edwards Edwards by Michael McClymond and Gerald McDermott McIntyre (Oxford, ). They contextualize his also details work and then take us through, in conclusions Butterfield came to regarding systematic Hodge-like fashion, overall international politics. Among them: “In theology, Christology, anthropology, a world of armed powers you must not soteriology, ecclesiology, and eschatology. expect your word or your will to carry A third debt is to the British historian the same weight if you are disarmed as if Herbert Butterfield (-), little you are armed. … It is wrong to wait known now but important in the last until an aggressor has actually emerged century for developing a Christian in full power before you try to check understanding of how to write history. him. … It is wrong when fighting an Kenneth McIntyre’s Herbert Butterfield: enemy to forget entirely that at the next History, Providence, and Skeptical stage in the story you may need that Politics (ISI, ) elegantly shows how enemy as an ally. … It is wrong even to Butterfield fought both materialist wipe out a state, to destroy a great conceptions but also those who give the power—since the power vacuum that you appearance of knowing exactly how thereby create will conjure into existence God providentially ordered history to another bogey worse than the first.” bring about His purposes.
Anatomies of defeatism Stephen Mansfield’s new edition of The Faith of Barack Obama (Thomas Nelson, ) continues to treat generously a person who could profit by studying the thought of Herbert Butterfield. Mansfield provides useful background information and notes Obama’s extreme position on abortion, but mistakenly sees the religious left as affirming “the social justice of the Old Testament prophets.” We’ll see whether Obama’s happy circumstance during his campaign for a Senate seat in —he said, “Alan Keyes was an ideal opponent; all I had to do was keep my mouth shut and start planning my swearing-in ceremony”—is repeated in . Theodore Dalrymple’s The New Vichy Syndrome (Encounter, ) describes European intellectuals falling into miserabilism and surrendering to
WORLD JUNE 2, 2012
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barbarism, but he could be describing Obama’s perspective as well. Dalrymple argues that the two world wars sapped European selfconfidence and left millions choosing to eat, drink, and be merry, without the willingness to sacrifice for children. And yet, it’s been two-thirds of a century since Hitler’s war ended, and that’s enough time to recover—if much of Europe had not turned its back on Christ. Bowing to Beijing, by Brett Decker and William C. Triplett (Regnery, ), shows how Obama is weakening the United States as China’s regime is growing stronger by expanding its nuclear arsenal, stealing U.S. technology, and buying influence throughout the world, including at American campuses. Our growing national debt, of course, leaves us at Beijing’s mercy. The authors don’t deal with the only hopeful sign in this: that as Europe abandons Christ millions of Chinese are believing in Him. —M.O.
HODGE: ENCYCLOPEDIA BRITANNICA/UIG/GETTY IMAGES • BUTTERFIELD: TOPHAM/THE IMAGE WORKS • EDWARDS: R. BABSON & J. ANDREWS/PUBLIC DOMAIN
T of systematic theology I ever read, in , was Charles Hodge’s three-volume work, so I am forever in his debt. W. Andrew Hoffecker’s Charles Hodge (P&R, ) is only the second full-length biography of this leading th century theologian, and the first since . From his teaching position at Princeton and his journal editorship, Hodge weighed in on decades of church issues. An Old School Presbyterian, he was uncomfortable with cross-denominational organizations in a way that prefigures today’s parachurch debates. Hoffecker poignantly relates Hodge’s dismay as he and others came to grips with slavery. When Northern New Schoolers pressed for immediate abolition of slavery and his Southern Old School allies claimed that the Bible recommended slavery, Hodge proposed gradual emancipation with humane protections in the meantime—no breakup of families or ill treatment, and opportunities for slaves to acquire their own property by moonlighting.
Hodge
Email: molasky@worldmag.com
5/10/12 5:13 PM
HANDOUT
Intellectual debts
NOTABLE BOOKS Four nonfiction books > reviewed by
An Economist Gets Lunch Tyler Cowen Tyler Cowen is a foodie and a capitalist. From his perch as a George Mason University economist he wants to give people at many income levels the tools to eat well. His rules for good eating arise from both experience and economics. He shows how prohibition and the baby boom negatively affected food, and how immigration positively affects price and quality. He explains why budget diners are more likely to find tasty food on the east-west streets rather than the north-south avenues of Manhattan, and why Asian markets are a good source for fresh greens. Cowen wants to help readers understand the workings of food markets and the difference between food for taste and food for status acquisition.
A Journey Through American Literature
Show Me a Story Leonard S. Marcus The first books a child reads are picture books, but we rarely read about the artists who illustrate them. Marcus conducted interviews with some of the best illustrators, including Maurice Sendak (who died May ), Peter Sis, Vera Williams, William Steig, Eric Carle, and Mitsumasa Anno. He asks questions ranging from, “What kind of child were you?” to “What prompted you to try your hand at making children’s books?” to “Tell me about your first memories of books.” Tana Hoban explains that her first books were black and white because her publisher didn’t give her the option of shooting photographs in color. James Marshall explains the origins of the scary substitute teacher Viola Swamp, and Robert McCloskey says he was surprised to win the Caldecott Medal because he’d never heard of it before.
HANDOUT
HODGE: ENCYCLOPEDIA BRITANNICA/UIG/GETTY IMAGES • BUTTERFIELD: TOPHAM/THE IMAGE WORKS • EDWARDS: R. BABSON & J. ANDREWS/PUBLIC DOMAIN
Kevin J. Hayes Hayes, a University of Central Oklahoma professor, divides his survey of American literature into genres—travel, autobiography, poetry, drama (including plays and TV dramas)—and themes. “American literature is about identity,” he writes, and uses the first lines of eight books to draw out that theme. It’s also about new beginnings, conquering the frontier, and confidence in the American way of life. Hayes’ discussion of travel narratives should entice readers to explore lesser known genres of American literature. He includes a timeline of selected works that would be a good starting point for those who want to read off the beaten track.
SPOTLIGHT When Kay Wills Wyma realized that she—a successful professional woman who had stayed home to raise her five children (ages to )—was raising kids with an unhealthy sense of entitlement, she decided to do something about it. She began a one-year experiment to “rid her home of youth entitlement.” Cleaning House (Waterbrook, ) is a month-by-month account of her experiment fighting entitlement on the micro level by introducing her children to regular chores and responsibilities. In Simple Secrets to a Happy Life: ways to make the most of every day (Thomas Nelson, ), Luci Swindoll, sister of Chuck, follows her mother’s lead by giving instructions in five-word sentences that start with a verb. In chapters entitled “Honor your Father and Mother,” “Acquire a Brand-New Skill,” and “Acknowledge Your Need for Help,” Swindoll shares practical and spiritual lessons learned during her long life. Some of her advice will make you wiser and some will make you a nicer person to be around.
Detroit (A Biography) Scott Martelle Martelle’s very readable biography of a city now under the spotlight begins with its early history as a French settlement. Advantageously situated on a bend of the Detroit River connecting two Great Lakes, Detroit prospered, especially after the Erie Canal and Soo Locks opened up waterways from Lake Superior to New York. Martelle describes Detroit’s mechanical geniuses and brings to life the vibrant, restless city they built. The book is much less interesting when he reaches the th century, which he views almost exclusively through an economic and race narrative. He fails to analyze critically how labor and the auto industry agreed to unsustainable contracts that eventually brought Motown to its knees, and he ignores cultural factors—music, religion, sports, ethnicity—that give a city life. Email: solasky@worldmag.com; see all our reviews at WORLDmag.com/books
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WORLD
5/10/12 5:14 PM
Reviews > Q&A
The new Screwtape Paying homage to C.S. Lewis, RICHARD PLATT ’s recent book captures the style PLATT’s and satire of The Screwtape Letters BY MARVIN OLASKY
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I since C.S. Lewis wrote The Screwtape Letters, many writers have tried to write a sequel, and many have failed. Richard Platt succeeds with As One Devil to Another (Tyndale). Lewis biographer Walter Hooper notes, “It reads as if C.S. Lewis himself had written it.” Platt, born in , has always loved reading but has only started writing during the past decade. He paid the bills by working in and managing restaurants, and recently retired from that. Here are edited excerpts of our interview. Did you enjoy the restaurant business? It was physically fatiguing but not mentally fatiguing, so I could come home, sit down, and read. All the writers I have come to revere and love, including C.S. Lewis, I discovered on my own. And you’ve been married for years? We just celebrated our th anniversary. Easily the smartest thing I’ve ever done in my entire life. When did you discover Lewis? A friend who was also a Presbyterian minister handed me Surprised by Joy. He’s a soft-sell guy. He just said, “This is a great narrative voice, and I think you’ll like it.” Had you been surprised by God at that point? No. I took the book home and thought, “Wow, this is really quite something.” We had coffee the next week and I said “Hey, this Lewis guy, what else has he written?” He handed me a copy of The Case for Christianity, which ultimately became the first part of Mere Christianity. I took it home. That was the beginning of the avalanche. I started nodding on page four. Lewis’ mind works like a fine cutting tool, paring to the hardened kernel of essential truth in the center. You find yourself going A to B, B to C, C to D. What did you think about God before reading Lewis? I hadn’t thought a whole lot. I was the lazy agnostic from a very loving, nondenominational Christian family. I would say “How come this?” and
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“Why that?” I got those “Because God said so” answers. I stopped asking those questions. What happened after you read Lewis? I started praying. Then I started thinking about not just understanding my relationship to God, but my obligations. I started thinking: Everybody’s been given some abilities. What are my abilities? What can I do? How can I serve? This book is the answer to those years of asking what I could do. I’d like you to read several passages from As One Devil to Another, starting with the instructions a young devil receives about his new client ... “She is a postgraduate in the English department of an old and prestigious university which means, happily for us, a hotbed of arrogance, spiritual erosion, and social vanity. She is quite clever, by human standards, which could work very much in our favour as her environment is perfectly suited to inflame her latent intellectual snobbery and many of the other lovely vices we are trying to make endemic. “We must consider how best to exploit her aspirations. She has set her sights on a career in academia. Do we want to propel her to dizzying heights of academic success, distending her ego and making her a loathsome prig to everyone but her most accomplished colleagues, wallowing in the envy she provokes in her peers and the fear she instills in her students? Or shall we raise her just to the level of mediocrity that will cause her to aspire to, but never reach, those dizzying heights, an onlooker who stokes her hunger by publishing a few books here and there but is mostly ignored by the academic community and who spends her life picking at the scabs of envy that will form on her like a spiritual crust?” The problem of pain certainly engaged Lewis. Could you read us a bit from the fifth letter? “The question is one of perspective, which you, as a WALLY NELL/GENESIS FOR WORLD
5/14/12 1:57 PM
youngster, will find difficult to see, because our purpose differs so much from the Adversary’s. We want sheep fattened for slaughter. A life of ease, sensuality, comfort, and mindless dissipation would suit us admirably. He wants immortal beings united to Him, freely, joyously, eternally. (Pardon the distasteful phraseology. A teacher must be candid.) Humans are designed and required to grow and learn, and ultimately, to serve, not because they’ve been placed under the lash, as we would have it, but because their will freely conforms to His. “In order to learn they must act, and He has given them a dangerous world because it is only in a world of danger, and thus pain, that moral issues come to the surface. … Keep this in mind. The Adversary sees the tempered steel they are to be once they emerge from the furnace. The clients who learn to ride in the toughest schools of all, in the end, will be the most free. It is therefore of paramount importance to prevent our clients from adopting the Adversary’s perspective.” Every generation has to deal with the problem of pain, but you also bring in some issues that Lewis did not have to consider. How about two paragraphs from Letter ? “We see an even finer example of our philological handiwork in the representation of homosexuality. ... From the Adversary’s point of view the homosexual is no different from the glutton, the adulterer, the liar, or the worshiper of graven images with which we have peopled the stock exchanges. ... The homosexual is in exactly the same position as the unmarried heterosexual. ... The Adversary’s command is to enjoy the physical union He has designed only through ... marriage; otherwise, He commands abstinence, which, thanks to us, is virtually impossible for them. “We have corrupted the homosexual’s legitimate plea for tolerance, turning it into a demand at first for acceptance and then for approval. … The ultimate advantage to us is not societal strife and division in the church, however amusing, but spreading out wider our finest work, one nearest to his majesty’s dark heart: spiritual pride. Homosexuality is a mere sin of the flesh. The creation of homosexuals is a legitimate goal for us not so we may damn them, but so we may ensnare those tasty delicacies, the spiritually self-righteous souls who are protected from this particular sin, yet who would denigrate those who have this cross to bear. … With warm regards from your loving uncle and mentor, Slashreap.” A
“Lewis’ mind works like a fine cutting tool, paring to the hardened kernel of essential truth in the center. You find yourself going A to B, B to C, C to D.”
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5/14/12 1:58 PM
Reviews > Music
Girls gone mild
Stephens, Jones, and O’Connor make statements with new albums BY ARSENIO ORTEZA
WORLD JUNE 2, 2012
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of choice are now electric, and she still worries about being able to be a good mother after “working all day and worrying all the night.” But she also acknowledges in “Girl” and “Buddy Up to the Bully” that her daughter will have to grow up and fend for herself. Her identification with Icarus in “Wax and Feathers” gives her an even bigger perspective. The danger, Stephens implies, lies not in flying too close to the sun but in allowing the “injustice” and “misfortune” of “disbelief” to cast one like a sling-shot stone to the sea. And when in “Out of Sight” she asks God to write her checks because “He has all the money” and, after all, He made her, she brings the complaints of both David and Job up to date. The complaints of Norah Jones on Little Broken Hearts (Blue Note) are microcosmic by comparison—namely, how to get over being kicked to the romantic curb for a
woman as young as Jones herself was when she became an overnight sensation years ago. Produced by Danger Mouse (the latest go-to guy for rootsy acts intent on modernizing their sound), she has exchanged her jazzy backup for an ominous electronica that subtly serrates her scorned-woman fury. The change in musical direction was probably at least in part market driven. All of Jones’ albums have gone platinum at least, but each has also sold approximately percent less than its predecessor, turning her career into a kind of commercial Zeno’s paradox. It’s the lyrics, however, that will most surprise the million-plus listeners that have stuck with her. “Never been the killing kind,” she sings to her ex-flame’s new love interest, “But you know I know what you did. [...] Was it a game to you? I’ve punished him. … Now I’ve saved the best for you.” That
she delivers the sentiments in her trademark downy-soft voice only accentuates the threat. And, given the universality of feminine vulnerability, it could be the whisper heard ’round the world. No female pop star of note has trafficked in vulnerability more openly than Sinéad O’Connor. And with How About I Be Me (and You Be You)? (One Little Indian), she reaches new depths (parental warning: explicit lyrics) and heights, sometimes simultaneously, playing her well-earned reputation for emotional volatility for maximum artistic worth. “I don’t want to waste the life God gave me,” she insists in “Reason with Me,” the title of which is just one of the album’s many biblical allusions. The most potent: “V.I.P.,” a song O’Connor apparently composed after reading—and pondering— Judgment Day as described by Christ in Matthew . A
STEPHENS: HANDOUT • O’CONNOR: JASON LAVERIS/FILMMAGIC/GETTY IMAGES • JONES: JACK PLUNKETT/AP
SHE OF A KIND: Stephens, O’Connor, and Jones (from left).
Email: aorteza@worldmag.com
5/14/12 2:09 PM
GLOBE PHOTOS/ZUMA PRESS/NEWSCOM
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I Stephens’, Norah Jones’, and Sinéad O’Connor’s latest albums are bellwethers, politicians seeking the “women’s vote” this year face a daunting task. From family matters off the soccermom radar to existential concerns beyond legislative redress, the songs make clear that women don’t live by campaign promises alone. Stephens debuted in with an eponymous release on Sufjan Stevens’ then little-known Asthmatic Kitty Records. Blending the acoustic melancholy of Nick Drake and the understated intensity of Linda Thompson, she seemed poised for whatever the “big time” might mean for a serious, st-century Christian singer-songwriter. Instead, she married, became a mother, started a gardening business, and for nearly a decade kept her nose to the workaday grindstone. When she returned with The Breadwinner in , she was singing of dirty dishes, balancing budgets, and connubial oases. On Pull It Together, her focus hasn’t changed so much as shifted. Her guitars
NOTABLE CDs Four new CDs > reviewed by
Plans Within Plans MxPx Mike Herrera is only , but his band is . So it’s natural that he should begin wondering whether time is on his side—and that he should sound more convincing singing “I love my life now, but those were the best of times” than he does singing “These are the times I’m living for. / Every day is better than the one before.” Curiously, since they drum and strum as fast, tightly, and melodically as ever, neither Yuri Riley nor Tom Wisniewski seems to have gotten the memo.
Up All Night One Direction This latest testament to Simon Cowell’s hitrecognizing knack is as prefabricated as pop music comes, a direct result of the talent-show assembly line. Clean? Yes. Catchy? Relentlessly so. The stuff that the dreams of mass merchandisers targeting teenage girls with disposable income are made of? Of course. And, frankly, both the merchandisers and the girls could be doing much worse. But just when you think the boys are singing “I want a savior,” you read the lyrics and realize they only “want to save ya.” Personal Space: Electronic Soul 1974-1984 Various performers
When Dick Clark died in April, obituaries focused on his tasteshaping role as a multimedia mogul, paying special attention to American Bandstand. The praise drowned out the accusations of his detractors—to wit, that only Clark’s Teflon reputation had kept him from going down with Alan Freed during the payola scandal and that he had “whitened” rock ’n’ roll to the financial detriment of black musicians. What wasn’t drowned out— because it wasn’t mentioned—was the criticism leveled at American Bandstand by Ignatius J. Reilly, the protagonist of John Kennedy Toole’s comic novel A Confederacy of Dunces. A self-declared enemy of modernity, Reilly feeds his disdain for pop culture by watching Bandstand every afternoon. “What an egregious insult to good taste,” he screams at one point. “Do I believe the total perversion that I am witnessing?” One can only imagine what Reilly would think of pop music circa . But one thing’s certain: He’d blame Dick Clark.
Older Than My Old Man Now
GLOBE PHOTOS/ZUMA PRESS/NEWSCOM
STEPHENS: HANDOUT • O’CONNOR: JASON LAVERIS/FILMMAGIC/GETTY IMAGES • JONES: JACK PLUNKETT/AP
Seventeen songs by acts, none of which have a Wikipedia entry and only four of which merit a mention at Allmusic.com—the subtitle sets the stylistic and chronological parameters, but “blaxploitation-film soundtrack” would’ve done just as well. Amid spacey soundscapes, slinky synthesizers punctuate reified ghetto emotions recollected in tranquility. Topics include, but are not limited to, poverty (Spontaneous Overthrow, “Money”); self-respect and/or esteem (Key & Cleary, “I’m a Man”), and, when all is said and done, Jesus Christ (Otis G. Johnson, “Time to Go Home”).
SPOTLIGHT
Loudon Wainwright III Despite the duet partners and the singer’s amazement over having logged more years than his late father, Wainwright’s th album isn’t all that different from any of the others he’s recorded since his mother’s death in . Besides, mortality has long haunted even his funniest songs, as anyone who remembers his only hit, “Dead Skunk,” can confirm. What’s different is the poignancy resulting from his conviction that he’s living on borrowed time—and that, if he isn’t, he’ll have to find a way to top himself yet again. See all our reviews at WORLDmag.com/music
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5/14/12 2:11 PM
Mindy Belz
Experts needed
Marriage is an old privilege, not a new right
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WORLD JUNE 2, 2012
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The confusion over marriage is most notable among the church itself, where Christian teaching is clear yet only about half of Americans, if the polls are right, believe gay marriage is wrong. “Political strategy and tactics alone don’t explain such a pronounced shift in public sentiment, especially among younger generations of Americans,” writes Collin Hansen, editorial director for The Gospel Coalition. And he’s right to point out that the problem isn’t simply a misunderstanding of Scripture but a misunderstanding of God: “We’re not satisfied with a God who calls us sinners. Who calls on us to deny ourselves.” That— plus the happy busyness that’s kept many families homeschooling or volunteering in Christian schools, making meals and meeting carpools, actually being countercultural when it comes to changing views of marriage—has left too many Christians AWOL on a vital cultural issue. Lacking engagement now, the confusion will spread with President Obama’s “evolution,” which includes using Christian teaching to first underpin his hesitancy to support gay marriage and now to bolster it. Obama also isn’t clear on states’ rights. Having said that marriage laws should be handled by states, through a White House spokesman on May he said he was “disappointed” by the North Carolina vote and thought it discriminatory. With Mitt Romney standing with the traditional marriage crowd, Obama quickly rolled out a web video portraying Romney as “backward” on marriage for saying “, years of human history shouldn’t be discarded so quickly.” The tag will raise Obama millions among the gay rights’ vanguard though it’s a straw man: Newness in a trend is no guarantee that it’s progressive. Just ask my Big Mouth Billy Bass that someone gave me about the time gay marriage started to catch on. A
GOD’S DESIGN: Students in Raleigh, N.C., rally in support of a state constitutional amendment recognizing marriage as only between a man and a woman.
TED RICHARDSON/AP
S I’ on this or that topic, a hazard of the journalist’s profession. I’m at best a bystander, observing experiences of others and lessons learned in the battles of life. But I will claim to be an expert on this, especially while others are doing so: marriage. This month with my husband (not WORLD founder Joel Belz, as many assume, but his younger brother) I will celebrate years of marriage. And we are a happy pair who have endured—as most have by this season of life—our portion of sadness and struggle. Sexuality is a gift of God designed to exist between one man and one woman in marriage as long as one or the other shall live. God meant this union to be unique because it alone would have sex in it! The Scriptures demonstrate this, plus the spiritual reality reflected in the physical union. The Scriptures also demonstrate that from Adam onward, men and women have gotten it wrong, deviating in thought, word, or deed (or all of the above) from God’s plain design. A marriage under God’s design—of a year’s or years’ duration—is a privilege and a mercy, not a right. Whether we acknowledge its perils and privileges or not, we all—left, right, gay, straight, or bi—are tethered to that design. Where we split apart is over what protection civil society should grant to marriage, and which marriages governments should recognize and protect. Here the historical record is unambiguous: Until , when the Netherlands became the first nation in the world to legalize gay marriage, government entities around the world solely recognized marriages between one man and one woman—for tax benefits, lawful protection of children, government services, and other legal entitlements. This did not reflect that such marriages are somehow innately virtuous, but that they emerge flawed and therefore require legal protection. Vermont in became the first state to recognize gay marriages, and today six states in the United States have legalized same-sex marriage, while carry statutes that outlaw it. My home state of North Carolina is the latest to tackle marriage, adopting on May a constitutional amendment that defines marriage as between “one man and one woman” and outlaws other “domestic legal unions.” From this front-row seat I’ve seen the propaganda used against traditional marriage (see “Carolina blues,” May )—and at some point my years’ journey feels under attack.
Email: mbelz@worldmag.com
5/15/12 12:04 AM
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THE NEW EGYPTIA As Moses once led his people out of Egypt to Mt. Sinai, church leaders in a postMubarak era are discovering how to guide the largest Christian population in the Middle East against new threats and become good neighbors by Jamie Dean in Cairo photo by odd andersen/afp/get t y images
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TIAN WILDERNESS
“CONSIDER IT ALL JOY”: Egyptians worship at St. Peter’s Church in Cairo.
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Come inside the packed meeting room with high ceilings and wooden pews and you’ll find a church leader behind a pulpit talking about Moses. “Moses understood the sovereignty and power of God,” he says. “But I don’t think he had a clue how powerful and sovereign God was until he lived with Him in the wilderness.” It’s a message that resonates for Egyptian Christians living in a modern-day wilderness of their own. Though life has been difficult for the minority group for decades, the last year has brought a revolution that yielded an Islamistdominated parliament and worries that life may grow even harder for Christians already facing discrimination and oppression. Last October, fears deepened when the army cracked down on Coptic Christians in Cairo protesting the demolition of a church building in Aswan. The assault on protesters killed 27 and injured more than 300. As many as 200,000 Coptic Christians have fled Egypt since last year, and handfuls of evangelicals report knowing many in their own circles fleeing the unrest. With the country set to hold its first post-revolution presidential elections May 23-24 (and possible run-off elections in June), the unrest could grow deeper. Conflicts between supporters of Islamic groups, the military, and secular parties fomented into violent street fights by early May. The turmoil affects all Egyptians, including the millions of Egyptians who live below the poverty line and have little hope of fleeing. But it leaves minority groups especially vulnerable and threatens to shrink dramatically the largest remaining Christian population in the Middle East. Though this wilderness may be vast for Egypt’s Christians, it isn’t barren. Even if Egyptian Christians aren’t sure where they’re headed in an unpredictable landscape, some—including a determined population of evangelicals—
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VULNERABLE: ezzat shaker with his wife (above); angry egyptian Christians (right) protest outside st. mark’s Cathedral in Cairo last october after clashes with muslims and security forces killed 27.
WORLD June 2, 2012
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shakers: Jamie dean • protesters: amr nabil/ap
n a bright Sunday morning in Nasr City, a district of Cairo, millions of Egyptians begin a typical workday: Women in brightly colored head coverings barter for vegetables in outdoor markets, men in compact cars relentlessly blare horns during morning commutes, and children in neat uniforms march arm-in-arm to local schools. The morning call to prayer wafts from dozens of nearby mosques, but Sunday isn’t a holy day for Egypt’s majority Muslim population. Schools close and mosques open for weekly sermons on Friday. But in an eight-story building tucked into a row of high-rise apartments on a major thoroughfare, an exception to the normal routine unfolds. Draw near to the gates of the only evangelical church in this district of some 2 million Egyptians, and you’ll hear the sound of nearly 300 voices singing in Arabic: “Consider it all joy when you go through trials.”
shakers: Jamie dean • protesters: amr nabil/ap
are finding fresh resolve to continue serving their communities and new courage to speak into a society that has often scorned them. At the church in Nasr City, pastor Ezzat Shaker prays that trend continues: “I hope that the church will be a church without walls.” And though he knows that life for Christians could grow more difficult in the days ahead, he adds: “Jesus said it’s His church. … No fear.”
F
or many Egyptians, fear has been a steady reality since last year. During the Middle East’s tumultuous Arab Spring last year, Egyptian citizens amassed in cities like Cairo and Alexandria demanding regime change. The protests shut down ordinary life, and chaos ensued when security police abandoned their posts, leaving citizens to guard their homes and businesses round-the-clock.
Still, in an extraordinary 18 days, the 30-year-old rule of authoritarian President Hosni Mubarak crumbled, and a military council announced its ruling power until the country could hold its first legitimate elections in decades. More than a million Egyptians had packed into Cairo’s Tahrir Square for protests that turned to mass celebrations as Mubarak announced his departure. (More than a year later, Egyptians await a verdict in Mubarak’s trial for charges of corruption and murder during his dictatorial reign.) But celebration turned to uncertainty as Egyptians faced the post-Mubarak reality: How would unorganized citizens build a new government? An organized group answered: The Muslim Brotherhood—an Islamic group long banned from Egyptian politics by Mubarak—emerged with a well-organized political party that drew widespread support. The group’s Freedom and Justice Party won nearly 50 percent of the seats in parliamentary elections in January.
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The group’s rise alarmed secularists who had led the revolution in hopes of a secular government. It also alarmed Christians. Though the Muslim Brotherhood claims moderation in its views, the group has had terrorist ties in other countries, and its most famous slogan is stark: “Islam is the solution.” While some worried about the Muslim Brotherhood, others worried more about Salafi Muslims who won 24 percent of the seats in parliament. Salafists don’t claim moderation: The fundamentalist group advocates strict adherence to Sharia law. Authorities increasingly implicate the group in targeted attacks on Christians. And when the group backed a presidential candidate earlier this year, men with long beards and women with faces covered by black niqabs carried signs of support through Tahrir Square. The Islamist dynamic isn’t surprising in a country that’s nearly 90 percent Muslim, and challenges to Christians may not be new but are now more open and direct. An estimated 12 percent of Egypt’s population identifies as Christian—a designation given at birth. (National identity cards indicate an Egyptian’s religion, and changing the designation from Islam to Christianity is forbidden.) Most Egyptian Christians identify as Coptic Orthodox— an ancient tradition of Christianity and the oldest church in Egypt. A smaller percentage identify as Protestant or evangelical (often synonymous terms), making Egyptian evangelicals a minority within a minority. Minority status brings huge hurdles: Egyptian regulations for building churches makes constructing—or even renovating—church buildings a sometimes decades-long process. Public evangelism is forbidden. Discrimination in the workplace is common. Social scorn is an ongoing reality in some areas. Beyond hassles, Christians have faced violence: Terrorists bombed the Coptic All Saints Church in
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espite the growing fears, other Egyptian Christians remain hopeful—and determined to stay. Back in Nasr City, the church’s pastor, Shaker, seems buoyant when he talks about his church’s vibrancy since the revolution. He says services remain packed (the congregation holds two services to accommodate 500 members) and that churches around the city are using the post-revolution environment to meet Muslim neighbors: “The churches are stepping outside their walls.” Churches in Cairo and Alexandria report new visitors, including Muslims curious about Christianity. (Since state police dispersed after the revolution, Christians and Muslims feel less scrutiny from local officials for now.) Members of the Nasr City church continue their longtime efforts to serve their neighborhood: Three floors above the church hall, the congregation has operated a small community clinic for years. During a recent visit, patients sat in a small waiting room of the four-room clinic that maintains a dentist’s office, a lab, and examining rooms for services that include cardiology and dialysis. Doctors from the church volunteer, and the clinic offers treatment for a nominal fee to all members of the community, including Muslims. On another floor, the church operates a preschool program for community children at a low cost to parents that work outside the home. Children sit around low tables in colorful rooms working puzzles, coloring, and playing games. Volunteers teach the children using the Montessori method that stresses creativity and critical thinking—an innovative approach in a country that emphasizes learning by rote. Shaker says such efforts have built the church’s credibility in the community, and that they haven’t encountered problems from government officials. They plan to continue working hard for as long as they can. “Of course there are some concerns that things could get harder,” he says. “But I know the Lord is the Lord of the church, and He’ll stay faithful to it.” Across town, the members of Kasr el Dobara have been working hard, too. The largest evangelical church in the Middle East is home to several thousand members that take turns packing into three worship services each week and a Monday night prayer meeting that draws more than 1,500 people. The church has another notable feature: It sits on the edge of Tahrir Square—ground zero for political protests and filled by hundreds of thousands of demonstrators during the last year. The square has filled with protesters again during the
SAlAfiS: Amr nAbil/Ap • KASr el DobArA: HAnnAH AllAm/mCT/lAnDoV
CHALLENGES: Veiled egyptian women (above) hold posters supporting a Salafist candidate during an April 20 demonstration at Tahrir Square; two men pray together (facing page) at Kasr el Dobara evangelical Church in Cairo.
Alexandria in January 2011, killing 23 congregants leaving a New Year’s Eve service. The growing Islamist power has compounded ongoing fears and sent thousands of Christians fleeing Egypt. In conversations with dozens of evangelicals in Cairo and Alexandria, many told me they knew dozens of Christians who had left the country and said more were contemplating a move. At one evangelical congregation in Cairo, a longtime church member spoke in hushed tones and asked not to be identified when he talked about a handful of Christian friends who had fled since last year. He plans to stay, but admitted: “We are afraid the Islamists will kill the freedoms worse than before.”
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Pastor Said, the associate minster, said that attitudes about the future vary in the congregation: some people are optimistic, some are worried, and others have fled. But he says the church is encouraging Christians to persevere through difficulties and seize new opportunities to serve others: “We encourage them to live their Christian life … be servants, be loving, be compassionate, show the love of Christ, and be good citizens.”
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iscovering how to be good citizens in a new political environment is a challenge for many Christians long-marginalized by society. Though Christians enjoyed some protections under the Mubarak regime, they’ve had little voice in government or broader society. From the early days of the revolution, Christians debated whether they should participate in protests or remain quiet— a debate that continues. From an Anglican church in Alexandria, pastor Emad Mikhail has encouraged his congregation to learn more about the political process and candidates and to become active citizens that advocate for the good of the whole country. It’s been a gradual journey. During the first days of the revolution, Mikhail spent hours on the phone with church members who feared for their safety as looters roamed the streets in the absence of police. Now life is calmer. Visitors have returned to Alexandria’s famed library, and the streets of the port city bustle with cars, buses, taxis, and pedestrians making harrowing commutes across traffic. Still, people are more cautious about going out at night, and the possibility of mass protests always looms. On a busy street near his church, Mikhail says: “We’re still in the shaky transition.”
BeLA SZAnDeLSZKY/AP
UNCERTAINTY: days leading up to the presidential elecAn egyptian man tions in May, but officials usually turn off in the Hanging streetlights in part of the area at night to Church in Cairo. discourage locals from assembling in the dark. A handful of citizens remain on a patch of dirt in the center of the square full time, hovering over small campfires and sitting at doorways of makeshift tents. (Locals say the campers are family members of protesters slain during the demonstrations.) Across the square and behind a government building, churchgoers streamed toward Kasr el Dobara for a recent Sunday night service. Each person filed through a high gate and a metal detector before passing into the church’s grounds, but the extra security doesn’t mean the church is closed to outsiders. Indeed, during the revolution, the church’s open-air courtyard became a triage center for demonstrators wounded during the protests. The church maintained a clinic that included 80 beds and volunteer doctors who treated as many as 300 patients a day at the height of the unrest. Medical supplies still sit piled high near the church’s entrance, waiting for the next emergency. “The revolution opened doors for us,” said associate pastor Nagi Said after the evening service. “The church became more exposed.” That exposure draws visitors to church services that on a recent Sunday night included two hours of prayer, singing, preaching, and communion. The church’s senior pastor didn’t address the political instability directly, but he reminded his congregation that spiritual victory often comes through tribulation. “Sometimes the news seems to go from bad to worse,” he said. “But we go from glory to glory.”
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That transition could take years. Though Egyptians have been eager to adopt a new government quickly, their task is formidable: elect a new parliament, draft a new constitution, elect a new president, transfer power from the military to a civilian government, and manage unrest when factions disagree. Public distrust of political powers—including the military and the Muslim Brotherhood—has grown, as citizens worry about any one group gaining too much power. Meanwhile, tensions have grown between the military and the Muslim Brotherhood, as both groups look to maintain measures of control. And conspiracy theories abound, with some Egyptians convinced the military stirs unrest to make citizens long for stability that the military would promise to provide. Others believe the two groups have struck a secret political deal that will give both organizations lasting power. Whatever the case, Mikhail isn’t surprised at the ongoing uncertainty. But he’s encouraged that Egyptians seem willing to discuss openly ideas that they once talked about in private. (Indeed, newspapers that once carried only state propaganda now carry letters to the editor criticizing the government—a definite shift in freedom of speech. But Human Rights Watch noted in February that the military has also continued to crack down on reporters covering political rallies, detaining and beating some.) If the news seems hopeful and gloomy all at once, that’s the new reality in Egypt. Mikhail says he remains “cautiously optimistic” about the possibility for progress in the next five to 10 years, but he also emphasizes: “We hope for a good political system to evolve over time, but as a church, that’s not our primary goal.” For now, Mikhail continues his work as a pastor and as head of the Alexandria School of Theology. On a Sunday afternoon, classes weren’t in session, but some students buzzed around the seminary and waited for evening services to begin at the church on the same grounds. That didn’t stop Tamer Hitler (his real name) from plunging into a discussion about politics. The young Muslim considers himself a secular revolutionary devoted to encouraging a secular government in Egypt. Before the revolution, he’d never visited a church. But since the country’s upheaval, he says he wanted to learn more about his Christian neighbors: “I had no idea what went on behind these walls.” After attending some worship services, classes, and social functions, he says he has a better understanding of Christians: “They take care of each other.” But he also has some advice: “They should get out of their isolation and into society, let people know them. That’s what they need to do before the doors are closing.” Whether the doors will close for religious minorities in Egypt is an open question. Back at Kasr el Dobara, the associate pastor says he knows difficult times could come. But he compares Christians’ plight in Egypt to the plight of the Old Testament’s Joseph who endured his own difficulties in the same country. “We know that maybe we have to go through some tough times, but we hope that will lead to better times,” said the minister. “Maybe seven lean years will go before seven years of abundance.” A
Email: jdean@worldmag.com
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Not forsakeN
Muslim converts to Christianity face special dangers in a new Egypt Arranging a meeting in Egypt with a Muslim convert to Christianity is a sensitive proposition. When I met Mary Ahmed to discuss life since her conversion—and the changes in Egypt over the last year—I agreed to protect her identity. (Mary Ahmed is a pseudonym.) Ahmed isn’t ashamed of her faith. She’s worried about her safety and her livelihood if her devout Muslim family learns that she’s a Christian. And since Egypt’s revolution last year, her fears have grown. If Christians are a vulnerable minority in Egypt, converts to Christianity are an especially vulnerable minority. Add being a woman to the dynamic and the dangers increase further. Ahmed’s concerns were obvious in the route she took to our meeting: After leaving her home, she took a minibus, switched to a cab, and then walked part of the distance to obscure her trail. She planned to take a different route home. When she’s home, she’s careful to hide her Bible and remove Christian resources that could reveal her faith. But Ahmed isn’t reserved about her commitment to Christ. She became a Christian through the influence of a friend who encouraged her to read the Bible. “I began reading in Genesis, and I finished the whole Bible,” she says. “I didn’t understand everything, but I was very happy.” Ahmed says she was particularly drawn to the
teaching that God is near to those who believe in Him. (Islam teaches a distant God.) And she was attracted to a Christian community that has become a spiritual family. She volunteers for church functions, visits the sick, prays with needy members, and attends nearly every event, even though every trip is a potential risk. She longs for her own family to know Christ, but says she must remain quiet about her faith for now. If they discover she’s a Christian, Ahmed believes they would imprison her in her own home. It’s difficult for her to contemplate being separated from her church. Since the revolution, the dynamic has grown worse, and Ahmed says she sees parts of the culture becoming more severe. The political rise of Salafi Muslims and their hard-line call for strict adherence to Sharia law has inflamed Ahmed’s family against Christians. They’ve pressured her to embrace Muslim practices that she’s quietly given up in her home. Perhaps they already know she’s a Christian. Perhaps they’ll find out. Either way, Ahmed says that while giving up church would be difficult, she’s not afraid of retribution. “I know that God has been protecting me all this time,” she says. “And even if something happens to me, He’ll be in control of that too. … I’m not afraid, even though things might get worse.” —J.D.
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Resolving the dramatic case of China activist Chen Guangcheng doesn’t take care of thousands more dissidents like him
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G’ from his rural home in Shandong province was extraordinary: The human rights activist—blind since childhood—evaded round-the-clock surveillance, scaled several walls, broke a foot, walked many miles, hitched rides with contacts he’d never met, and appeared at the doorstep of the U.S. Embassy in Beijing on April . Chen’s case created a diplomatic quagmire that led to an eventual agreement: By early May, Chinese and U.S. officials said that Chen and his family could travel to New York University to study. From a heavily guarded hospital room in Beijing, the activist awaited passports and a departure date. But if Chen’s escape was remarkable, so was the journey that led to his captivity. For months in , the activist traveled village-to-village in his home province, collecting testimonies for an extraordinary effort: The AT LAST: self-taught lawyer amassed the first class-action A nurse lawsuit against China’s brutal practice of forced wheels abortions and sterilizations under the country’s Chen into one-child policy. a hospital. Like his escape, the project was dangerous: Authorities in unmarked cars trailed Chen while he visited victims, and intimidated villagers who talked to him. Eventually, they stopped him altogether with trumped up charges and a four-year prison sentence. After his release from imprisonment, security guards surrounded his house in Shandong. Chen and his family suffered two years of arbitrary house arrest that included brutal beatings before his escape in April. After his escape, Chen appeared in the U.S. Embassy in Beijing just before Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrived in China for scheduled talks. The timing raised tensions that later turned into confusion. Though Chen originally said he wanted to stay in China to advocate for human rights, that dynamic changed when he left the embassy. The activist says when he arrived at a Beijing hospital for medical treatment and a reunion with his family, U.S. officials
disappeared and his fears grew. His wife told him that after his escape, Chinese guards tied her to a chair for two days and threatened to beat her to death. Authorities detained other members of his family and supporters suspected of helping him escape. His future in China looked bleak, and he pleaded with U.S. officials to help him take refuge in America: “I want them to protect human rights with concrete actions.” It’s unclear why U.S. officials encouraged Chen to leave the embassy. Chinese officials reportedly assured U.S. authorities that Chen could relocate to another Chinese town without facing harassment or retribution—an assurance that human rights groups and some foreign policy experts declared impossible to trust. Whatever the case, Chen and his supporters hope that his dangerous escape ends in a safe haven. But they also hope for something else: That Chen’s story will underscore the human rights abuses that he fought and that continue throughout China.
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’ of justice began with a personal grievance: In , he traveled miles to Beijing to complain about a problem with his taxes. This time, he won: The government gave him a refund. According to The Washington Post, Chen went to Nanjing to pursue the only college courses available to the blind in China: acupuncture and massage. He studied law on his own, and began taking cases for disabled citizens and poor farmers. Back in his village near Linyi, neighbors began telling Chen about grievous offenses by local officials: They had enforced the country’s one-child policy by forcing local citizens to undergo sterilizations and abortions. It wasn’t an uncommon problem. China declared it would control its growing population by implementing a one-child policy in . Officials boast the policy has prevented at least million births in the last years, whether by birth control, sterilization, or abortion. Chinese authorities regularly JUNE 2, 2012
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One thing is clear: The world is still unsafe for many women deny forcing citizens to have abortions or sterlizations, but and unborn children around the world, including in China. thousands of families have reported the practice. During congressional testimony last September, a handful of The practice often begins with officials in local provinces women testified about the forced abortions they endured in working to keep population numbers under control. In some China. Ping Liu, a former Chinese factory worker and U.S. areas, they face quotas for numbers of abortions and immigrant, recounted routine mandated pregnancy tests in her sterilizations in their regions. If they don’t hit numbers, some workplace. She said co-workers told authorities about each of her officials force local citizens to comply. five pregnancies, and that officials forced her to abort all five Chen began investigating reports of such practices in Linyi, unborn children: “We had no dignity as potential child-bearers.” and eventually uncovered thousands of cases of forced abortions During the hearing, Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., called China’s and sterilizations. Despite his own low income, his blindness, policy “the most egregious attack on mothers ever.” and his limited law education, Chen was relentless: He traveled house-to-house, using a small digital recorder to capture victims’ testimony. A handful of other activists helped Chen others and unborn children aren’t the only group verify the reports, and the attorney began filing lawsuits before facing abuse in China. Authorities continue to crack his detention in 2006. down on religious minorities and house churches that refuse to Human rights activist Reggie Littlejohn submitted some of register with the government. Chen’s findings during her U.S. During congressional testimony congressional testimony last in February, Li Jing and Geng He December. Littlejohn is founder of testified about the serious abuses Women’s Rights Without Frontiers, a their husbands had endured as California-based organization that human rights activists in China. Both advocates for vulnerable women and men, Guo Quan and Gao Zhisheng, girls in China. Littlejohn submitted a are well known Christians dissidents. report written by Teng Biao, a Gao Zhisheng remains in prison. human rights lawyer who worked The wives say they have been with Chen during his investigation. unable to secure meetings with White The report details some of the House officials to discuss their husbrutal cases that Chen uncovered. bands’ cases. (During their testimony, Section headings include: “Linyi the Pentagon welcomed Chinese Vice Family Planning Officials Beat a President Xi Jinping with a 300-man 59-Year-Old Man for Two Days, honor guard and a 19-gun salute.) Breaking Three Brooms over his Meanwhile, the Texas-based Head, because his Daughter Was Not Christian rights group ChinaAid Home for a Tubal Ligation reported an increase in harassment Sterilization Check.” against house churches in China The 36-page document includes during the first part of the year: testimony from local citizens who Authorities in Daqing province said authorities beat and tortured detained more than 150 church them over the unauthorized leaders during a Bible training session pregnancies of relatives. Others in March. In April, authorities asked to endure punishments in arrested 53 local house church leaders place of family members found during a Bible study in Ye county. Left behinD: Young women who said district family planning officers forced them into pregnant or unsterilized. Later that month, officials raided a having abortions in Guangzhou, China. The report also includes church in Hubei province, smashing testimony by a woman who endured the donation box, stealing the money, a forced abortion while seven months pregnant. The assault forcing out the Christians, and changing the locks on the doors. came after authorities beat, tortured, or detained 22 of her During a phone interview, Bob Fu, president of ChinaAid, relatives while trying to track down the mother pregnant with said that a group of five house church pastors tried to visit a third child. “I was already pregnant for seven months and Chen’s remaining family in his village after his escape, but was forced to inject an oxytocic drug,” she told the activists. authorities chased them from the village. “My baby was aborted one day later.” Fu speaks with Chen regularly, and expects the activist will Near the end of the report, Teng recalled Chen’s persistence spend the summer in Texas after arriving in the United States. despite his disabilities: “He keeps a large number of phone Fu says Chen and his family need rest and recovery after their numbers, sounds and [path]ways in his mind, so he doesn’t years-long ordeal. Chen doesn’t profess Christianity, but tells need anyone to accompany him to whichever family he visits Fu: “God is the one who helped me escape.” in the village. Actually people with discerning eyes like us When Fu thinks about China, he’s glad that Chen has escaped often ask him for help to point the way.” his captors, but worries about the activists and minorities that Teng dedicated the report to his own unborn child: “I keep still face persecution without an international spotlight. “He’s on talking, reading, and singing to her everyday. … I hope the just one of many Chen Guangchengs in China,” Fu says of world she lives in is a safe, free, and love-worthy world.” Chen. “There are thousands of them.” A
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Right turn on
Maıne With a pivotal Senate race in November, conservatives are increasingly energized in what has for decades been one of the most liberal states in the nation
Mary Adams’ political involvement in Maine began way back in 1973 when she left a school budget meeting bewildered over a new statewide property tax for education. Convinced that this should be a local issue, Adams, then a mother of two young children, launched a petition drive that after a lengthy fight led to the repeal of the tax. “My daughter who was 5 when I started this had her ninth birthday the year the referendum passed,” Adams says. “That’s how long those things take. I was the person who picked up a stick and it ended up being the tail of a dragon.” Adams is now helping lead a growing conservative and Tea Party presence in a state where many outsiders think conservatives are extinct. And as with her property tax activism 39 years ago, her efforts today are bearing fruit: Maine no longer reliably elects liberals and may send a conservative to the U.S. Senate in November. Less than two years ago, Tea Partybacked Paul LePage surprised everyone by ending a generation of moderate Republicans (they call them Rockefeller Republicans here) ruling the state GOP. And then he shocked folks even more by becoming the first Republican governor of Maine in 20 years. Republicans also took control of Maine’s House and Senate, giving the party control of the
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governor’s mansion and the state house at the same time for the first time since 1966. “The conservative movement in Maine is in the best position it has been in the last 45 years,” argues Adams, who is in her early 70s. Adams, who lives in Garland, Maine, moderates a monthly meeting of roughly 60 conservative leaders. The group celebrated its 10th anniversary this April. On meeting days, Adams gets up at 3:30 a.m., picks up doughnuts, coffee, and bagels, and drives her 2006 Ford Escape the nearly 90 minutes it takes to get to the state capital of Augusta. The discussions at these meetings lately include the newest test for the state’s emerging conservative movement: the battle over the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by retiring moderate Republican Olympia Snowe. The contest is an important one on the national level. Republicans need to pick up four seats in order to take control of the U.S. Senate. Snowe’s surprising retirement announcement suddenly turned Maine into a competitive state, making the overall battle for the Senate harder for the GOP. Yet some Maine Republicans see the challenge as an opportunity. “People out on the right flank of the party do not like Olympia Snowe and haven’t for years,” says Lance Dutson, head of The Maine Heritage Policy
Center. “The idea that she can be replaced with a more conservative senator I think can awaken a lot of conservative imaginations. That is something I don’t think any of us thought would happen for a decade at least or more.” Six Republicans are facing off for the nomination in the state’s June 12 primary: Secretary of State Charles Summers, state Attorney General William Schneider, state Treasurer Bruce Poliquin, state Sen. Debra Plowman, former Maine Senate President Richard Bennett, and Scott D’Amboise, who is the only candidate who entered the primary before Snowe announced her retirement. Conservative activists in the state seem to agree that all six would be more fiscally and socially to the right of Snowe.
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Four Democrats are running in their party’s primary. But the race’s wildcard is the independent candidacy of former two-term Gov. Angus King. King enjoys a lead over all potential adversaries from both parties according to recent polls. With reddish grey hair and his signature mustache, King plays the role of the folksy grandfather who is above partisan bickering. But King coyly refuses to declare which party he would caucus with if he wins the seat. In a sign of his leanings, his entry into the race scared off several high-profile Democrats, including another former governor and two current congressional representatives. King also supports President Barack Obama’s reelection and recently said that the “shift of the Republican Party to
the right, particularly on social issues, is disturbing.” “He became an independent out of convenience,” Dutson says. “His record is 100 percent liberal.” King’s entry has handcuffed Democrats both within the state and in Congress—many party leaders are fearful of how much vocal and financial support they can give the official Democrats in the race without upsetting King. Meanwhile, Republicans seem united against King. Top GOP party leaders are not waiting until after the primary results before going after the frontrunner. Gov. LePage said King “has made a fortune off the backs of Maine people.” That’s a reference to King’s stake in a wind company whose $102 million government loan guarantee is under a con-
gressional probe. King sold his stake in the company shortly after announcing his run for Senate. Republicans also have kept busy reminding Maine voters that the state enjoyed a budget surplus when King began his governorship in 1995 but suffered from a budget deficit when he left eight years later. Maine conservatives are hoping that King’s candidacy will create the same scenario that helped Republicans during the gubernatorial race here in 2010. Then, left-leaning independent candidate Eliot Cutler lured more Democrats than Republicans on his way to grabbing 36 percent of the vote. Democrat Libby GOING RED? Garrett Lear (as the patriot pastor) addresses a crowd at a tea party rally outside the Capitol in augusta, Maine.
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D and momentum, the Maine Republican Party faces internal challenges. During the party’s state convention on May , time ran out before the six Senate candidates could take the stage. Many blamed supporters of Ron Paul for hijacking the convention and forcing the schedule to fall so far behind that the convention chairman, a Paul supporter, axed the -minute speaking slots set aside for the Senate candidates. Shocked at their sudden inability to showcase themselves before the , people who registered for the convention, the candidates began delivering shortened versions of their speeches in stairways, atriums, and empty rooms near the convention’s meeting hall. “This whole weekend had been an absolute fiasco,” declared candidate D’Amboise while standing on a chair near his convention booth. By the time the messy convention ended, Paul supporters had
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MAINE ATTRACTIONS: Mary Adams (abve); The six GOP candidates for Olympia Snowe’s Senate seat: Summers, Plowman, Bennett, D’Amboise, Poliquin, and Schneider (clockwise from top left).
won out of the state’s delegates to the national convention. Carroll Conley, the Christian Civic League of Maine executive director, said he is confident that conservatives will “lick their wounds” and rally behind the Republican primary winner. He said the momentum from the election is still strong enough to boost the Republican candidate that emerges this June. “Maine is not as liberal as it was being governed,” Conley says. “I think a lot of people in Maine were silent and really afraid to stand up for their conservative values. But the left pushed too far too hard.”
Conley says another factor will influence this fall’s election: A vote in Maine on same-sex marriage. In then Gov. John Baldacci signed into law a bill allowing same-sex marriages, but social conservatives put it on hold by successfully petitioning for a referendum, and the repeal passed by a percent to percent vote. In response, same-sex marriage advocates launched their own successful drive to place a voter initiative in favor of same-sex marriage on Maine ballots for this November. Conley predicts that this ballot question will bring more conservatives to the polls and help the Republican candidate for Senate. But recent polls suggest that a majority of Maine voters support this newest gay marriage initiative, and some conservatives worry that voter fatigue over the issue could affect turnout. Yet conservatives like Adams, the septuagenarian political activist, and Dutson say they see no evidence of fatigue in the state’s conservative and Tea Party groups. Adams sometimes appears on stage with Gov. LePage, and she always tries to rally the troops with stories about her conservative activist days in the s when, as she puts it, she often felt “lonely.” The Cook Political Report lists the Maine senate race as a toss-up, and Dutson of The Maine Heritage Policy Center says conservatives in are numerous and energized. “They know now something that they hadn’t known in a generation,” he says, “which is they can win.” A
ADAMS: ROBERT F. BUKATY/AP SUMMERS: AP • PLOWMAN: HANDOUT • BENNETT: ANDY MOLLOY/AP • D’AMBOISE & POLIQUIN: JOEL PAGE/AP • SCHNEIDER: PAT WELLENBACH/AP
Mitchell received just percent of the vote, allowing LePage to win with only percent. The Republican candidates here are keeping a busy appearance schedule in their efforts to combat the advantage in name recognition enjoyed by King. At a recent candidate forum in Bangor, the contenders took turns addressing a crowd of nearly who sat and munched on meatballs, cucumbers, and broccoli. It was difficult to discern any real differences in the candidates’ policy views. Each one railed against the government’s spending habits: one candidate called them unsustainable, another called them outrageous, while a third called them immoral. One candidate said he is running for his children and grandchildren, while another candidate said the government has sold “my children and your children into servitude.” All the candidates pledged to repeal Obamacare and unravel the welfare state. After the event, attendees talked about the energy of the state’s conservative movement. Charlie Smith of Stockton Springs, Maine, said he’s seen neighbors scrape off Obama bumper stickers from the back of their cars. Jon Pottle, , said Maine has a lot of disgruntled people like the rest of the country who are just tired of big government.
Email: lpitts@worldmag.com
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ADAMS: ROBERT F. BUKATY/AP SUMMERS: AP • PLOWMAN: HANDOUT • BENNETT: ANDY MOLLOY/AP • D’AMBOISE & POLIQUIN: JOEL PAGE/AP • SCHNEIDER: PAT WELLENBACH/AP
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less sTruggle For Greater Glory, a new film about a CatholiC uprising against a soCialist mexiCan government in 1926, has surprising resonanCe in 2012 by megan basham
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became a viable threat to Calles’ power, hree years ago, when directorgoing to war with the battle cry, “Cristo Rey” producer Dean Wright agreed to helm a (Christ the King). historical film about a pivotal but As part of his preparation for the film, little-known Mexican conflict, he had no Wright met with Gorostieta’s children who idea how closely its subject matter would told him that while their father was not the mirror some of the fiercest political debates most devout Catholic, he believed ardently in making headlines today. religious freedom. “He believed if you were For Greater Glory, which reaches theaters Jewish, if you were Protestant, if you were on June 1, relates the events surrounding the Catholic, you had the absolute right to Cristero War, a people’s revolt that was practice your faith and not have that taken sparked in 1926 after a socialist Mexican away from you,” Wright says. He describes government enacted anti-clerical legislation Gorostieta as not just a brilliant tactician, but limiting the freedoms of the Catholic a man with a broad understanding of what Church. The administration of President Elias Calles’ targeting of Catholics could mean for Calles began by restricting how and where other civil liberties in Mexico. Mass was celebrated, then moved on to “[Gorostieta] understood that throughout closing religious-affiliated schools and history the first step of an oppressive regime expelling foreign priests and ministers, is to shut down the church in order to take before eventually seizing church property away that support for potential dissidents,” and putting Catholic dissenters to death. Wright says. “The aim is to cut you off from At first, religious citizens protested God. That’s what oppressive governments do. peacefully, organizing economic boycotts The daily Mass, confession, the and passing out literature condemning sacraments—they were part of the the new laws and Calles’ methods of fabric of the culture in Mexico, and implementing them. But as Calles’ the president tried to tear that enforcements grew more brutal, fabric away. So you can imagine including hanging the dead the reaction.” bodies of executed priests and Eventually the American dissidents on telephone poles ambassador to Mexico brokered as warnings to would-be a peace treaty between the two rebels, many faithful banded sides. But because Calles’ together and took up arms. But anti-clerical party maintained it wasn’t until they recruited power for another 70 years, it went retired military mastermind Gen. to great lengths to erase the Enrique Gorostieta (played in the glory bounD: uprising from the annals of national film by Andy Garcia) to organize Andy Garcia history. “It wasn’t discussed and it and lead them that the motley (center) in For wasn’t taught. If it was in the assortment of farmers, students, Greater Glory; school books it was from a very wives, and even some lay priests Gorostieta (above).
for greater glory: Hana MatsuMoto/arC entertainMent • gorostieta: Handout
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LEARNING FROM THE PAST: Scenes from the film (left); Garcia and Wright (below).
TOP: HANA MATSUMOTO/ARC ENTERTAINMENT • GARCIA & WRIGHT: JORGE ANTONIA DELGADO PINAL/AGENCIA REFORMA/NEWSCOM
specific point of view,” Wright explains, adding that the movie’s release is sparking a lot of controversy in Mexico. “It’s a huge topic of debate right now, and we expected it, frankly, because we are showing a history that many younger people have never heard of.” In his experience with filming the movie, Wright says that whether people were aware of the story or not largely depended on how urban they were. “I grew up in Arizona and live in Southern California, and I had never heard of this. So when I started working on it, I went down to Mexico, because it was really important to me to go to the places where this actually happened. And in these little communities hours from any major city you would find in some church or some home a shrine or a picture of a priest or family member who wouldn’t recant their faith and were killed because of it. But then I would go into Mexico City or Guadalajara and people would have no idea about it. They lived in Mexico and had no idea this happened. It’s been a shock to many people.” Wright had years of experience working on epic-scale films like Titanic, The Lord of the Rings,, and The Chronicles of Narnia,, so the sweeping, historical nature of this project didn’t daunt him. But while he understood that its themes of freedom and the balance between religious rights and government regulation would resonate with some audiences, he says he had no idea it would prove so timely. “There are lines in the script,” he says with a laugh after I ask him about proposed contraceptive mandates in the United States, “that you could pull out and put in the newspaper and you’d think it was a conversation happening today.” Nevertheless, he is quick to point out that he did not approach the project with
an agenda to push or a moral to teach, believing that events in the film speak for themselves. “Whether you believe [the Cristeros] did the right thing or not is for each person to decide. Would it have all worked out if they had just been pacifists, or would they all have been shot dead?” Wright asks. “I don’t know and I didn’t want to impose an answer. On the one hand our Lord is the Prince of peace, on the other there’s a time for peace and a time for war.” He also explains that he took pains to avoid making a purely religious film and instead tried to maintain the story’s larger context. “Yes, it’s about people fighting for faith, but that’s the same thing as fighting for freedom,” he points out. “Because the next freedom to go is the right to protest, then the next freedom to go is the freedom of assembly. It’s a slippery road and before you know it you’re under a totalitarian government. Neighbors turn on neighbors, and that started to happen [under Calles], like you saw in Nazi Germany, and other fascist regimes.” Star Andy Garcia agrees, arguing that regardless of whether you’d be inclined to support the actions of the renegade Catholics, their story is worthy of attention. “There are debates going on in contemporary society about the role of the government and religion and where the line should be drawn over how deeply religion should be involved in politics and how much government should be involved in religion. So just like Braveheart wasn’t just a movie for Scots or Schindler’s List wasn’t just a movie for Jewish people, this is not just a movie for Mexicans or for Catholics. This is a universal story that is still going on all around the world.” Garcia says he’s glad For Greater Glory is bringing up events that were for so long a taboo subject in Mexico because he believes they have something to contribute to current debates. “It’s the old cliché,” he says. “If you don’t know history you’re in danger of repeating it.” A
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An arm and a leg f A Sudanese man will go to a lot of trouble to win a hand in marriage by Moses Wasamu in Nairobi, Kenya PHOTOS BY MOSeS WASAMu
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ohn Daau has traded the equivalent of 70 cows to win the hand of his sweetheart Sarah in marriage. He is yet to give 30 more cows before their upcoming church wedding. Daau is a South Sudanese Anglican priest who has been living as a refugee in Kenya since the early 1990s. He belongs to the “Lost Boys” generation of Sudan, young men and boys forced to flee their country as a result of the two-decade civil war. Daau first lived in a refugee camp in northern Kenya before going to Nairobi, Kenya’s capital, to pursue university studies. Later, he attended seminary at Trinity School of Ministry in Ambridge, Pa. In January this year, Daau returned to visit his fiancée’s relatives in Nakuru,
Kenya, for the near-culmination of a negotiation process that began in Juba in South Sudan last year. For a Dinka man wanting to get married, he must be ready to give cattle, as bride wealth has to be given to the prospective in-laws. Negotiating the bride wealth, or price, is the most difficult and interesting part of the marriage customs among the Dinka, the predominant tribe of South Sudan. This is normally a prolonged discussion: It can take as long as one year. The groom and the bride aren’t part of the proceedings, but both sides try to get the best deal: The bride’s side wants the groom’s family to pay the most, while the groom’s family wants to pay the least. The process begins with the groom first meeting young ladies from the
bride’s side. This is meant to declare to the bride’s relatives that he has interest in her. After this, the groom and his team meet a second group composed of some more young ladies along with the bride’s aunts. In the third stage, the groom’s relatives meet the bride’s father and other male relatives. This is when the real negotiations for dowry begin. The bride’s family puts forward a proposal, which is countered by the groom’s relatives. The going rate can reach $20,000 or more, according to Daau. For the Dinka, the bride wealth is always paid in cows and the number depends on many factors. These include the height of the bride; the taller she is, the more cows she might attract. Also, competition among other interested men may become a determining factor in bride wealth payment. If there is competition, the relatives of the bride keep the cattle from the competitors separated until the highest bidder finally takes the girl!
g for a Dinka bride
ARDUOUS PROCESS: A Dinka cow shed (opposite page)—cows are a measure of a man’s wealth and are widely used for payment of dowry; John Daau (above, with purple collar) greeting his fiancée’s relatives; Daau (in the middle, with back to camera) with his relatives facing his future in-laws. June 2, 2012
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Dinkas are mostly cattle keepers, and they have myths depicting how, since the beginning of time, a man’s work has always been to tend cattle. With their relative wealth derived largely from farming, Dinkas have become the most populous tribe in South Sudan. Many played a significant role in the liberation of the country, including the late leader of the Sudan People’s Liberation Army/ Movement, John Garang, the late and imposing 7-foot-7-inch NBA player Manute Bol, and Francis Deng, a diplomat who currently serves as UN Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide. Salva Kiir, the first and current president of South Sudan, also comes from the tribe. The Dinkas are divided into clans. Some clans have established a standard of bride wealth payment at 30 cows. I asked Daau how young people manage to acquire this number of animals. “Since marriage is communal, it is the man’s relatives—both from the mother and the father’s side—who contribute to help raise the required number of animals,” he said. Even so, he added, for many young Dinkas coming up with 30 cows is a tall order.
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ven as the practice
of negotiating a bride price in cows endures, it’s not without its critics. Martin Olando, dean of students at Kenya’s Bishop Hannington Institute in Mombasa, is a researcher on the subject. “Many young men strongly believe that it is an old practice and a source of exploitation that ought to be done away with,” he said. They argue that since God has given all things, then women should be given freely in marriage, he said. Olando maintains that Dinka wives under the custom become a slave to the husband’s family, so that even if the husband dies, the wife cannot remarry without the consent of the husband’s family. “Some parents have commercialized the practice, thus losing the original meaning of friendship and social bonding,” Olando LET’S MAKE said. They demand expenA DEAL: sive bride wealth gifts, Daau’s team which must be given for (facing camera) the marriage to be connegotiates summated. Instead of with his bringing together hitherto fiancée’s unknown families and relatives.
clans, it has ended up making women their husbands’ property, he said. At the same time, others see nothing wrong with bride wealth practice. They say that since the Bible records the practice, it must be divine. Africans who value bride wealth highly tend to oppose anything that seems to interfere with it. Given the overwhelming problems of war and poverty, Daau says that the practice has made it difficult for young men to find wives for marriage. “That is why many young people in our community are unable to get married,” he said. “They end up impregnating young girls or eloping and running away from home.” Daau is just one example of many young Sudanese who go through the rigorous and expensive traditional process before marriage. For young Sudanese who reside out of the country—in the United States, Canada, or Australia— they often feel compelled to send more money than going rates to help relatives arrange for their marriages, Daau said. Thus for Dinka men, finding a wife for life means spending an arm and a leg. A —Moses Wasamu is a 2012 World Journalism Institute/Africa fellow and editor of South Sudan’s Christian Times, a newspaper published in Nairobi
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The death and life of compassionate conservatism: While a treasured idea became a mess in Washington, it flourished at a small school in Austin by MARVIN OLASKY illustration by KRIEG BARRIE
I
(March ) I noted how both ego and ideals—the prospect of a good Bush administration post and the hope of keeping compassionate conservatism on a small government trajectory—had a hold on me early in . Then God’s Gollums stepped in, twisting sloppy comments I had made so as to hurt the Bush campaign and make me a political albatross. The irony was that as the Bush campaign rightly distanced itself from me, critics scoring political points portrayed me as closer and closer to the candidate. On April Fools Day , Gary Wills named me Bush’s “principal adviser” and the Moscow Times anointed me as Bush’s “closest domestic adviser and soul mate.” A German publication called me his “ear-whisperer.” They were inaccurate but they weren’t fooling: I was the fool to have thought about giving up a journalistic calling to enter the inner ring. And yet … and yet … as I returned with full attention to editing WORLD and teaching, and as a Bush victory began to seem likely, I wondered what would happen to the compassionate conservatism concept.
Could I just send it on a small boat down the Nile and hope the right person would pick it up? It seemed that the right person was there: Steve Goldsmith, the former Republican mayor of Indianapolis, a pioneer in trimming bureaucracy and helping small faith-based groups, and Bush’s domestic policy adviser during the campaign. In late December, after George W. Bush had survived Florida vote counting and hanging chads, the president-elect asked me in a small group meeting about my hopes and aspirations. Here was my opportunity to say, in essence, “I still want to be in the inner ring.” Instead, I took a deep breath and said, “I plan to continue editing WORLD, and I’ll be criticizing you at times.” Bush momentarily looked surprised but then jocularly said, “Join the club.” On Jan. , , Bush still had not decided who would head the White House office for “faith-based” and community initiatives. Since I was away from the campaign during much of I didn’t know that inner-ringers who really were Bush’s ear-whisperers and soul mates had soured on Goldsmith. Thrashing
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y skepticism came from seeing individual twists and turns. One pregnant and unmarried 19-year-old had lived with our family for 10 months. Her prospects seemed very low, but she bore her child, returned to school, and became a nurse. I had seen Christ change lives, but not predictably: One man we worked with for years could articulately speak about Jesus, but even with strong incentives could not stay out of prison for more than a few months at a time. In 2001, while compassionate conservatism on a large scale started to take a dissatisfying turn in Washington, my wife and I had the challenges and satisfactions that come with small-scale efforts. That’s because two boys, ages 6 and 8, moved in with us as their mom began drinking again. I had helped our church start in 1996 an anti-poverty effort, New Start, and the mom was one of the people we tried to help. We didn’t succeed with her—she went back to a dozen beers before noon and chose to beg for dollars by a freeway entrance—but we could help her children. The goal of compassionate conservatism was to help the poor without growing government. We certainly saw how family breakdown builds up the state: Three social workers, an attorney, a therapist, a judge, and a variety of teachers were already involved in these children’s lives, and we saw many of them in the courtroom as a judge ruled that living with us temporarily seemed like the least traumatic thing for the kids. We soon witnessed a different kind of family dynamics. The 8-year-old initially spent big chunks of time sobbing. I hadn’t before seen long-term child depression: “This whole world sucks. … It’s all stupid.” The 6-year-old tiptoed around, fearful that if he said or did anything that irritated anyone, or even made some noise, he’d get hit. Their definition of a man was someone who hits a woman, as they had seen their dad hit their mom. They had learned to scavenge for food and stay up late. They had seen the effects of different types of drugs on a stream of strange visitors. Susan and I had a simple goal: show love and put some structure in their lives. First came something as simple as
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breakfast, where they would now sit at a table and eat rather than grab Pop Tarts from cupboards and cold pizza from floors. They went to school every day, instead of erratically. Eating dinner with a whole family and reading the Bible with dessert were new experiences for them. Bedtime stories, a first for them, were one way to get them settled for sleep. I started reading them The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, as I had done with all my children, but their reactions were new to me. They could readily identify with the four children living apart from their parents, but the change in Mr. Tumnus’ home from cozy at first visit to trashed the next time did not surprise them. Nor did they see anything strange about the witch-queen of Narnia offering candy plus sweet talk one day, and crusts of dry bread plus whippings the next. And I quickly recognized my inadequacies. I could readily think of myself as a good dad when my four sons made things easy—but these troubled boys were harder. They had learned to be fearful, since any small act of kindness from an adult might be followed by a physical or emotional wallop. They had learned that good things would come their way only if they whined so much that an adult would finally give in to shut them up. I had appreciated in a theoretical way what directors of children’s homes or homeless shelters do, but now I saw the 24/7 pressures. I also saw the rewards. It turned out that the younger boy was a tremendous little artist: When he grinned, with gaps between his teeth, he looked like a jack-o’-lantern. The older one had learning disabilities, but he lit up when he finally understood a patient explanation. Their spontaneous expressions of affection, like sudden hugs, surprised them and me. Another surprise: The state government was helpful, with a judge correctly terminating the parental rights of the unresponsive mom, and a Christian social worker finding the right adoptive family for the boys.
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hat process worked out much more happily than anything emanating from Washington, which is where I headed for a Jan. 29 ceremony creating the White House Office of Faith-based and Community Initiatives. When Chuck Colson at the meeting expressed some skepticism about government’s tender mercies, Bush joked that if he had a “litmus test as to whether we could work together, the room
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Diiulio & bush: J. scott Applewhite/Ap • city school: hAnDout
about for someone who wouldn’t be the instant object of press attacks, they and Bush chose John DiIulio, a University of Pennsylvania professor and registered Democrat who had been an Al Gore adviser. DiIulio, a Catholic, was a savvy public relations choice for a president who wanted to demonstrate a bipartisan and ecumenical spirit—but he was also a big-government person. DiIulio wanted to retain the grants economy, with power remaining in Washington, but to have social scientists rather than politicians decide on the basis of data where the money should go. I had been hearing about poverty from social scientists for a decade and was dubious. Some presented impressive theories showing how the right combination of incentives would move many of the long-time poor from welfare to productivity. If we only had scientific grant-making to groups that had made the right calculations, the government would no longer be wasting billions of dollars. Hmm.
might be empty.” Soon it was. DiIulio quickly pleased liberal reporters by saying that evangelical programs would be unable to participate in the faith-based initiative unless they agreed not to evangelize. I didn’t know how to react. The Bush folks had been friendly: Karl Rove took me to his office (formerly Hillary Clinton’s) and showed me her hidden vanity mirror. I didn’t want to be one of those anemic academics who has an idea, sees it picked up by a politician and carried to Washington, and then starts screaming because it’s not all he had hoped for. Nor did I want to say anything negative about DiIulio and give journalists the opportunity to say I was being too picky or, worse, reacting out of personal pique because the job wasn’t mine. God’s Gollums had forced my hand in 2000. This time, one of
Diiulio & bush: J. scott Applewhite/Ap • city school: hAnDout
Out anD in: Diiulio (left) with bush in 2001; city school students in Austin.
God’s agitators did so. Michael Horowitz is a think-tanker whose Hudson Institute office wall exhibits plaques with names like “Wilberforce Award” that signify his frequent recognition by human rights organizations. But lots of Washingtonians who have worked with Horowitz over the past quarter-century can’t stand him. That’s because he screams at them when they don’t burn bridges. His flow of sharp words rarely stops before 20 minutes have gone by. The day after the White House ceremony I was still in Washington, doing some reporting, and Horowitz was badgering me. You know they’re making a mess of your idea. Now that they’ve gained power they won’t give it away. You know that. I did know that, but didn’t want to admit it. After a sleepless night, I showed up the next day at a meeting Horowitz had scheduled with reporters. I told them that the DiIulio emphasis on discretionary grant-making gave government officials too much power to pressure religious groups to change their ways. I predicted that this approach would alienate friends without placating
opponents, and would grow the size of government instead of shrink it. Great: Less than two weeks after Bush’s inauguration I was in opposition. There goes my White House pass. Goodbye, inner ring. Thanks, God’s agitator.
I
n 2001, though, a different type of inner ring began in Austin. Several people in our church realized that Austin public schools did not meet the spiritual or academic needs of the two children who had lived with us. From out of those concerns came our idea for City School, a new K-8 academy that would serve children from both rich and poor areas and discern the distinct gifts and inclinations of each child. Over several months we ran across 32 children who could benefit from our approach. Some came from racial or ethnic minorities. Some were way behind academically. A couple were way ahead and thus also didn’t fit. Some were dyslexic: Sweet and often smart kids with dedicated parents, and every day in school had been an experience of failure for them. I was learning firsthand the limitations of social science that looks at people as group members. The poor people and ex-convicts we had tried to help, the children who came to City School, the people I as an elder interviewed for church membership— they all had their individual stories. Educational assembly lines and other factory models did not work with human beings. Compassionate conservatism at street level, I realized, is different from its appearance at suite level, where the talk is of grant-making and statistical assessments. Compassionate conservatism, rightly understood, is not rocket science and not even social science. It is not an oiled bowling alley. It is an English muffin with nooks and crannies. It’s an embrace of individuality. We embraced individuality in selecting teachers. They were uncertified but good—and parents felt a bit more at ease when a Harvard Law School graduate who was a homeschooling mom became the headmaster. She had given her children an afternoon break where they drank hot chocolate as she read them stories—and City School developed some of that feel. We embraced individuality among students previously seen as dummies, and gave them an opportunity to showcase their strengths. One student built an amazing Rube Goldberg machine that worked. We found action books for boys who found they liked reading. We urged kids to write creatively even when they had every-other-word spelling errors. Hangdog kids learned to shake hands and make eye contact. We had frustrations. I had seen historically how bad charity drives out good. Now in Austin I saw that, even though City School tuition was practically free for the poorest, some parents sent their kids to bad public schools because we could not match free breakfasts/free lunches/free transportation/other bells and whistles. I watched in Washington as “compassionate conservatism” by Sept. 11 had mutated into a big government program—and on that day the nation’s attention shifted. (to be continued) A
June 2, 2012
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KIRA CLARK
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Notebook
LIFESTYLE TECHNOLOGY SCIENCE HOUSES OF GOD SPORTS MONEY RELIGION
Learning by copying LIFESTYLE: Mimicking the masters, professional artists at the National Gallery of Art gain “tools of creation” BY KIRA CLARK
KIRA CLARK
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I of a rainy Thursday afternoon, Lago Arthur paints. Resting her forearm on a dowel supported by an easel, Arthur’s brush glides down her canvas capturing the gentle flow of a nun’s habit. Arthur steadies her hand, reexamines her work, and mixes red browns and warm blacks in her pallet. After each stroke, Arthur’s eyes dart from her work to her subject. Instead of copying from a photograph or model, Arthur, a classically trained portrait artist, is copying a painting, “Elizabeth Throckmorton,” by Nicolas de Largilliere at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. In nearly every major exhibit of the gallery stands an easel and drop cloth. Each weekday professional artists, called copyists, come to the museum to study the great masters. Since its opening COPY RIGHT: in March , the Arthur at work National Gallery on her version has invited more of “Elizabeth than , Throckmorton.” JUNE 2, 2012
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Notebook > Lifestyle
In the th century Marco Polo observed nomadic people of Mongolia living in sturdy, round structures made of a collapsible trellis and covered in felt. Today parks nationwide are erecting yurts—now wrapped in heavy-duty canvas—as an upscale alternative to tent camping. Even the word “yurt” has been Americanized into an acronym for “Year-round Universal Recreational Tent.” Five of Washington state’s parks have yurts. A customer service specialist with the state’s park system said offering yurts follows a trend in convenience camping that pulls in business for parks year round. DeGray Lake in Arkansas has three yurts that are booked through spring and summer. Yurts attract “glampers”— glamorous campers who want to experience the outdoors without sleeping on the ground. Yurts often have electricity, full-size beds, coffee makers, ceiling fans, small refrigerators, and heating units. Prices tend to range from to a night. Some yurts have small kitchens, and posh yurts have polished knotty pine floors with area rugs, skylights, decks, and covered porches. —Deena C. Bouknight
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storm in the Dutch countryside. The promising artists to set up makeshift strength and size of the mill seem to studios in the museum galleries to tower above ant-like people in the learn style and technique through foreground, but in the background a imitation. By studying old masters, gorge and an ominous black and blue imitators gain “tools of creation” they sky make the mill seem flimsy. use to fashion their own works of art. Rembrandt completed “The Mill” According to Arthur, Largilliere’s in , the same year the Dutch masterly use of light and dark creates received independence from Spain. depth and dimension, a technique Just like a young nation, the mill she wishes to learn. In the painting, stands resolute and determined amid the cool dark line of the nun’s habit the menacing storms of international emphasizes the radiance of her round political pressures. Jarrett says that eyes. The nun’s curved white figure, through concentrating light and accentuated by a warm brown backdark, and choosing scenes carefully, ground, seems to sit forward and Rembrandt—using paint and brushes invite the viewer to gaze. “That is what on a piece of stiff linen stretched I am trying to learn,” Arthur said. across a wooden frame—captured In another exhibit hangs the emotional ethos. “Little Girl in a Blue Armchair” by Some people say artists should American-born French impressionist work out of their imaginations and Mary Cassatt. The content is nothing not work on technique, which can get special, yet crowds of tourists jockey in the way, but Brian Yoder of the Art to get close to Cassatt’s depiction of a pensive little girl slouched down in a comfy sofa. With hair toussled and legs splayed, the little girl’s careless body glows. If you stand on the marble floor of the gallery, six inches from the painting, you can see how the terrain of the canvas varies. Thick lumps of paint give the sofa texture, but the paint on the skin and hair of the child is smooth. If you take a step back, the colors, textures, and lines blend. A reproduction does not capture those nuances. Michael Wiess of the Maryland Institute College of Art says SINCEREST Renewal Center says the key studying original masterpieces FORM OF to becoming a great artist is enables careful students to “get FLATTERY: learning great technique. inside the mind of the artist” in A copyist in Technique gives the tools to a way that is difficult with a London’s National communicate, and “Real reproduction. Gallery in creativity consists of In a gallery that displays . discovering effective ways of Baroque era art, Pam Jarrett using these tools,” Yoder says. mixes blues and greens. Hands Renaissance artist Cennino d’Andrea smudged and her eyes focused, Cennini put it poetically in : By Jarrett copies “The Mill” by copying, “You will eventually acquire Rembrandt van Rijn to learn about a style individual to yourself, and it atmosphere. Using her iPod to block cannot help being good because your out the commotion of energetic hand and mind, being always fourth graders, Jarrett, a Florentine accustomed to gather flowers, would trained artist, stands and gazes into ill know how to pick thorns.” A the emotional energy of a brooding
Notebook > Technology DESERT FARMING
Up in the air
means that when you upload pictures of the family reunion to a cloud service like Drive, Google flies straight into the Google servers are placing the cloud-based storage market photos in safekeeping for you. BY DANIEL JAMES DEVINE Should your computer suddenly fizzle out, you’d still be able to log in to Drive and download I giant Google your photos to any other computer. splashed into an already Microsoft SkyDrive, Apple’s iCloud, crowded (and increasingly and the independent service Dropbox competitive) market in April are other cloud storage services. Like with the debut of Drive, its cloud-based Drive, all offer a few gigabytes of free storage service. Anyone with a Google storage, then charge for additional account can now store documents, space. (SkyDrive charges a year to videos, music, and photos—up to five add GB.) If you have a smartphone gigabytes’ worth—for free on Drive or tablet, you can use the cloud to (drive.google.com), and share any of synchronize your devices. Dragging a the files with friends and family. (To file to a Google Drive folder on your install Drive, PC users need Windows computer, for instance, would XP—and Mac users, OS X .—or magically send that file to your online later operating systems.) Drive account and to your phone and Some may still be wondering what other computers. on earth a “cloud” is, besides And if cousin Betty wants to see something white and fluffy. Here’s a those reunion shots, there’s no need to primer: A cloud is an online computer send a huge email attachment or to network that your own computer can print and snail mail them. Just send connect with to store (or retrieve) her a link to the cloud. information. In terms of storage, it
Agricel, a company launched in March in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, is announcing, “World, we have arrived to Feed the Future.” Maybe. Agricel is promoting a water-soluble polymer that looks like clear plastic wrap: The film absorbs water and nutrients and provides an unusual but functional surface for lettuce, cucumbers, strawberries, and other crops to grow from.
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Weed box
Can a vending machine be just a little too convenient? An automated dispenser called AutoSpense is joining a growing number of round-the-clock marijuana vending machines in California, where marijuana has been legal for use as a pain reliever since . (Now states permit medical uses of the drug.) Authorized medical marijuana patients can swipe a registration card and enter a PIN to buy their goods (cash, credit, or debit) from an AutoSpense machine in Santa Ana. After regular store hours, the machine requires a fingerprint scan as well. —D.J.D.
Email: ddevine@worldmag.com
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According to Agricel, this technique of “film farming” uses up to percent less water and percent less fertilizer than traditional methods. About farms are testing the film in Japan, and researchers have already used it to grow tomatoes in a desert greenhouse. Since Agricel’s technique uses a second, impenetrable film for a base layer, farmers could theoretically grow crops on sand, ice, or soil contaminated by oil or sludge. Middle Eastern nations that rely heavily on food imports could benefit from the water efficiency: Saudi Arabia stopped subsidizing local wheat production a few years ago because of the strain on its water supply. Agricel boasts that those who convert their farms to film farming will “typically” have a - percent return on investment. That’s the hope—but is it hype? —D.J.D.
JUNE 2, 2012
WORLD
5/14/12 2:50 PM
Notebook > Science
Boycott ends after PepsiCo stops funding of tests using human fetal cells BY DANIEL JAMES DEVINE
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WORLD JUNE 2, 2012
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ASTEROID MINING: PLANETARY RESOURCES/AP • SENOMYX: ZUMA PRESS/NEWSCOM • BABY: ALTRENDO IMAGES/GETTY IMAGES
T - Children of God for Life (CGL) called for an end to a year-long boycott of Pepsi-Cola beverages on April after PepsiCo guaranteed it would not fund flavor testing that uses human fetal cells. In March the group had announced that PepsiCo, owner of Pepsi-Cola, Gatorade, Quaker, Tropicana, and Frito-Lay brands, had a million contract with Senomyx, a flavor research company in San Diego that uses human cells in robotic taste-testing technology. CGL executive director Debi Vinnedge says Senomyx holds at least MIXOLOGY: patents for technology involving “HEKA Senomyx scientist in ,” a human embryonic kidney cell the lab. line derived from an aborted unborn child in the s. PepsiCo hired Senomyx in to find sweetener compounds for low-calorie beverages. But in an apparent response to pressure from shareholders and from dozens of pro-life groups in multiple nations, PepsiCo recently added a line to its research ethics policy stating it would not fund research “performed by third parties” using human fetal cells. Senomyx appears to have agreed to use alternate technology in its work for the beverage maker. In an April letter to CGL’s Vinnedge, PepsiCo spokesman Paul Boykas wrote, “Senomyx does not use HEK cells or any other tissues or cell lines derived from human embryos or fetuses for research performed on behalf of PepsiCo.” Vinnedge says Nestlé, Kraft Foods, and the Campbell Soup Company had also collaborated with Senomyx, but no longer do so.
A team of optimistic entrepreneurs announced late in April they would attempt to do what space enthusiasts until now have only dreamed of: mine an asteroid. Planetary Resources Inc., a startup in Washington state with financial backing from MINE CRAFT: several billionaires, including Google CEO Larry A conceptual Page, plans by to launch up to five small rendering of spacecraft to scout out asteroids orbiting near satellites Earth that may be rich in water or valuable prospecting a water-rich metals like platinum and palladium. asteroid. Follow-up missions would investigate the feasibility of robotically extracting the metals and shipping them to Earth (where platinum currently sells for , a pound)—or of splitting asteroid water into its constituent hydrogen and oxygen atoms and setting up fuel depots for spacecraft. The co-founders of the venture, space tourism pioneers Eric Anderson and Peter H. Diamandis, think asteroid-powered fuel stations could lower the cost of space travel and spawn space colonies. “On a -year time scale the [mining] of space resources will add literally trillions of dollars to the global GDP,” Anderson predicts. But skeptics say the unpredictable costs and technical challenges of asteroid mining may derail their plan. —D.J.D.
BORN ADDICTED
A growing problem of prescription drug abuse among pregnant women in the United States has sharply increased the number of babies born with drug withdrawal symptoms, researchers say. The Journal of the American Medical Association reported that the number of newborns experiencing opiate withdrawal—characterized by seizures, dehydration, or difficulty breathing—tripled between and . Examples of opiate drugs include heroin and prescription painkillers like morphine and OxyContin. Doctors sometimes use small doses of methadone to treat infants exposed to opiates in utero. Hospitals charge an average of , to treat such cases, and usually send the bill to Medicaid. —D.J.D.
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DANIEL GANJI
Great-tasting choice
Mine in the sky
Notebook > Houses of God
a Baptist congregation in the middle of the Hindu village of Ganti Pedapudi. “This particular village used to be very hostile to Christians, but in the last decade the Lord has been moving strongly to bring many to His fold,” writes Deva Kumar Villuri, a friend of the pastor and his family. The church met in a small thatched-roof shed for many years but now gathers in the half-finished building surrounded by coconut trees.
daniel ganJi
asteroid mining: Planetary resources/aP • senomyx: zuma Press/newscom • baby: altrendo images/getty images
Zion Prayer House in India’s Andhra Pradesh state is
June 2, 2012
11 SCIENCE and HOG.indd 65
WORLD
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5/14/12 3:14 PM
Notebook > Sports
Just for men
>>
Gladwell vs. the gridiron Should universities ban college football? An apparently absurd suggestion on its face, that question provided the occasion for serious conversation before a crowd of New Yorkers at a recent Slate/Intelligence Squared live debate in Manhattan. Author, columnist, and all-around culture guru Malcolm Gladwell believes they should, arguing that the potential for unpaid athletes to suffer brain injuries renders the entire enterprise unbearably exploitative. Recent studies show a link between playing football and brain damage, including one report that revealed a percent higher rate of Alzheimer’s disease among NFL retirees than among men in the general population.
WORLD JUNE 2, 2012
11 SPORTS and MONEY.indd 66
the issue, the tour avoids becoming an activist organization and can continue generating large revenues from the sport’s most watched tournament. Still, Augusta National is not without pressure to change its policy. Prominent club member Warren Buffett said recently that he would allow female members if it were up to him—but it is not up to him. The morality of the club’s policy remains an open question. Augusta National is certainly free from a legal standpoint to operate as a menonly establishment. But is it right? Feminist groups decry the policy as discriminatory and harmful to women, preventing them from enjoying membership at such an historic course. Perhaps the plumbers union should make the same claim. Augusta National has yet to invite a plumber into its exclusive club. Or what of circus clowns? Not a single one on the membership roles. Surely, such discrimination cannot stand in our progressed society.
Buzz Bissinger, author of Friday Night Lights and Gladwell’s debate partner, deems college football a detriment to academic achievement and a significant reason for American workers falling behind in the competitive global job market. Gladwell and Bissinger won the night by measure of audience vote, but their ideas are not likely to gain much traction among a broader national populace gripped by the college football experience. It’s a billion industry according to Forbes, generating more than billion in annual profits. And the game provides educational opportunities to young men who otherwise might lack the inclination or financial resources to pursue them. It helps build camaraderie and lifelong friendships among players of diverse backgrounds. More importantly, it’s a hoot to watch and play—something the Canadian Gladwell, by his own admission, simply doesn’t understand. —M.B.
GOLF CLUB: HARRY HOW/GETTY IMAGES • ROMETTY: DIMA GAVRYSH/AP • GLADWELL: BROOKE WILLIAMS/LITTLE, BROWN AND COMPANY/AP
S are too important to bow to political correctness. According to U.S. PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem, the Masters golf tournament is one of them. For years, feminist organizations have complained that Augusta National Golf Club, site of golf’s most prestigious event, does not allow females to join as members. The issue garnered new attention this year when IBM promoted Virginia Rometty into the role of chief executive officer. The company’s four previous CEOs received invitations to membership in the exclusive club. Not so Rometty. Nevertheless, Finchem assured reporters at a recent press conference that the PGA would continue to recognize the Masters as an official tour stop. His reasoning: “It’s too important.” Finchem said the PGA would not be “determining whether their policies are right or wrong, because we don’t have to.” He’s right—and smart. In punting on
Email: mbergin@worldmag.com
5/15/12 11:06 AM
HOLLANDE: KENZO TRIBOUILLARD/AFP/GETTY IMAGES • PARIS: MEHDI FEDOUACH/AFP/GETTY IMAGES • FISHER: JONATHAN FICKIES/BLOOMBERG/GETTY IMAGES
Augusta National’s hard line against female members won’t separate the PGA and the Masters BY MARK BERGIN
Notebook > Money
Europe unravels
But the markets have reason to look beyond May’s election results
GOLF CLUB: HARRY HOW/GETTY IMAGES • ROMETTY: DIMA GAVRYSH/AP • GLADWELL: BROOKE WILLIAMS/LITTLE, BROWN AND COMPANY/AP
HOLLANDE: KENZO TRIBOUILLARD/AFP/GETTY IMAGES • PARIS: MEHDI FEDOUACH/AFP/GETTY IMAGES • FISHER: JONATHAN FICKIES/BLOOMBERG/GETTY IMAGES
BY WARREN COLE SMITH
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I , Europe threatened to unravel. On May , voters in France and Greece elected new leaders, rejecting attempts to impose what most analysts say are necessary austerity measures. The Dutch prime minister tendered his resignation a week earlier after his country failed to agree on budget cuts. But on the Monday after the French and Greek elections, the U.S. markets—after opening down—rebounded into positive territory. Why? In part because the results were expected, and the markets had some of the downside already baked in. The S&P , for example, up percent in the first quarter, was flat in April. The Dow Jones Industrial Average at one point was down about points from where it started in April. These moribund performances were despite strong earnings reports from many companies. But the real reasons the markets did little more go beyond a purely technical analysis. In the case of Greece, lots of Euro watchers believe the country is unsalvageable, and a speedy demise is preferable to a slow descent into chaos, a word which—appropriately in this context—comes from the Greek khaos, which means “gaping void.”
France is more complicated. Outgoing French President Nicolas Sarkozy was so chummy with German Chancellor Angela Merkel—and so agreeable to the austerity measures she negotiated—that Sarkozy’s critics derisively called him “Merkozy.” Their relationship rankled the French, and the election of Socialist President François Hollande (left) may be more about his vow to stand up to Germany than it is an affirmation of socialist policies. Hollande, indeed, may be pushing Germany back with one hand, but he’s reaching out with the other. He announced even before his inauguration a trip to Germany to meet with Merkel to renegotiate austerity measures. Merkel, for her part, said the day after the election that she “does not negotiate what has already been agreed.” A complete renegotiation may not be necessary if Merkel and Hollande find common ground. Hollande wants to reduce debt by raising the top tax rate to percent. Merkel wants more cuts. But they both know that debt reduction is essential. They agree, too, that reducing debt can’t happen without growth. And that may be why the markets didn’t panic after the election. Almost everyone agrees that having the leaders of the two largest economies in Europe discussing a strategy for growth is a good thing. In the end, the hard reality of mathematics will win. France has to cut spending, and not just because Germany says so. LA DIFFÉRENCE: Supporters of France’s Socialist Party celebrate the victory of Hollande in Paris.
GOOD FAILURES
Four years after U.S. taxpayers bailed out Wall Street and Detroit, the expression “too big to fail” is now in the cultural vocabulary and even has its own acronym: TBTF. Few people have more clout on the issue of TBTF banks than Dallas Federal Reserve President Richard Fisher. He’s a former Democrat who now has a reputation as a conservative, and he’s opposed to more government regulation of the financial services industry. He argues that the financial services meltdown was an unintended consequence of government interference in the financial markets. Fisher’s views made him one of the hottest speakers in Los Angeles in early May at the Milken Institute’s Global Conference, an event that is rapidly becoming the “go-to” event for free-marketleaning business leaders. If the ’s was the “greed is good” decade, Fisher suggested that the s should be the “failure is good” decade. He said business failure is a self-cleaning mechanism for an economy. The possibility of failure efficiently puts a price on risk and capital. The fear of failure teaches prudence. His bottom line: Government bailouts of TBTF institutions are contrary “to the very ideal of American capitalism.” —W.C.S.
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JUNE 2, 2012
WORLD
5/15/12 12:10 AM
Notebook otebook > Religion
UNTRUE TO THEIR SCHOOLS
End of an empire?
Confessing Anglicans throughout the world challenge British leadership BY THOMAS KIDD
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WORLD JUNE 2, 2012
11 RELIGION.indd 68
Nigerian Archbishop Nicholas Okoh called for more fundamental changes that would de-emphasize England’s traditional leadership in the denomination. In the United States, some Episcopal congregations have left the mainline denomination and joined theologically conservative “missionary districts” of African Anglican churches. Liberal Episcopalians have fought to hold onto their emptying church buildings, and on April one of the breakaway congregations, The Falls Church Anglican, lost an appeal to keep its property in a legal dispute with the Episcopal Diocese of Virginia. The diocese had sued the congregation and six other seceding congregations in order to retain church property and bank accounts. Because of the latest ruling, Falls Church Anglican will have to pay the diocese . million and vacate the church’s historic buildings completely by May . Falls Church Anglican and a smaller Falls Church Episcopal congregation had both been temporarily meeting at the Falls Church property, which has two meeting areas, a small older sanctuary, and a larger modern one. Average weekly attendance in was reportedly , people at Falls Church Anglican and for the Episcopalians. The will now have the whole building.
SENTAMU: CHRIS JACKSON/GETTY IMAGES • HERX: COURTESY KATHLEEN DELANEY/AP
A L of the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans (FCA) in late April called for major restructuring of the global Anglican Communion, including moving away from a “British Empire” model of leadership. Some proposed replacing the office of the archbishop of Canterbury, the appointed Anglican leader, with an elected chair. The FCA is a conservative renewal movement within the Anglican denomination, which has been wracked with controversies over biblical authority and homosexual ordination. The FCA says its purpose is “to proclaim and defend the gospel throughout the world, and to strengthen the church worldwide by supporting and authenticating faithful Anglicans.” Anglican membership has plummeted in England and America (home of largely liberal Episcopalians) but soared in areas of the global South. African leaders, typically more conservative than many Westerners on scriptural interpretation and social issues, have argued that their numerical dominance should translate into greater denominational power. Ugandan-born cleric John Sentamu, the archbishop of York, has emerged as one of the leading candidates to replace the retiring Rowan Williams as the archbishop of Canterbury. But FCA leaders such as
Two lawsuits are raising questions about the ability of Christian schools to fire employees for moral lapses or actions contrary to the schools’ religious mission. Last June a Fort Wayne, Ind., Catholic school released an English teacher, Emily Herx. She apparently had sought in vitro fertilization treatments: Official Catholic doctrine disapproves of them. When the church’s priest became aware of the treatments, the school dismissed Herx because of “improprieties related to church teachings,” as the school put it. Herx is suing the diocese and school for discrimination. In the second case, Heritage Christian Academy in Rockwall, Texas, last fall fired a science teacher and volleyball coach, Cathy Samford, when she became pregnant outside of marriage. The school said this violated her contractual requirement to set a good moral example. Samford is planning legal action against the school. January’s Supreme Court decision in Hosanna-Tabor v. EEOC may shed legal light on the legitimacy of both dismissals. In Hosanna-Tabor, the court ruled unanimously against a fired teacher at a Lutheran school in Michigan, saying she could not sue for discrimination because of the “ministerial exemption,” which protects churches from lawsuits by ministerial employees. Cases like Herx’s and Samford’s could help clarify whether every teacher at a religious school is by definition a religious employee, thus falling under the ministerial exemption. —T.K.
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Mailbag
“Who will vote?”
our children but the challenges are numerous and the isolation can be great. Falls Church, Va.
“Second opinion”
(April ) The objections to voter identification laws have always mystified me. I have to show my driver’s license to board a plane, put my zip code in the gas pump to use my credit card, and show my passport to enter the country. Voting is more important than any of these activities. This is not a racial or ethnic issue. This is about protecting the integrity of our system and thereby our freedom. , Birmingham, Ala. A significant number of evangelicals may choose to sit out November’s presidential election because they don’t find Romney conservative enough or an evangelical. They need to realize that a “no” vote is as sure a vote for Obama and his myriad anti-Christian policies as is pulling the lever for him. .
level, and carry on a reasonable conversation. It is definitely a labor of love. Anacortes, Wash.
You nailed the experience of parenting these children with this simple word: relentless. Truly God blesses us through
(April ) Thank you for the interview with Dr. Ben Carson. As a retired general surgeon, I applaud his keen analysis and insight into how to cure our healthcare woes. .
Venice, Fla.
I read Carson’s book, Gifted Hands, and hardly any other story has moved me so much. He is my hero. As a nursing student I have seen firsthand that to be a good doctor one has first to be a good man. He is a good and godly man and we so desperately need more of them to become doctors. Eagle River, Alaska
Carson is an admirable man with thoughtful things to say about healthcare, but he gets the role of private insurance exactly wrong. He wants government to be responsible for catastrophic healthcare and private insurance to cover the routine. We don’t get car insurance to cover oil changes. Health insurance should cover the catastrophic, while individuals pay for routine things out
Colorado Springs, Colo.
SAN LUCAS SACATEPEQUEZ, GUATEMALA / submitted by Tim & Vivi Oberg
“Intense isolation” (April ) I wiped tears from my face after reading your touching and insightful article on autism spectrum disorder, and how Lisa LeDeaux hopes finally to talk to Marcus in heaven. So many things from your article reminded me of a dear friend with a -year-old autistic daughter. I feel better equipped to support and pray for her.
around the world
Mt. Enterprise, Texas
We have a -year-old son on the spectrum. It is exhausting and overwhelming, both a blessing and a curse. He was “developmentally delayed” with a vocabulary of words at age , but we found Christian neurodevelopmentalists who have given us and our son hope for his future. He now has great eye contact, can read on grade Send photos and letters to: mailbag@worldmag.com
11 MAILBAG.indd 71
JUNE 2, 2012
WORLD
5/9/12 10:49 AM
Mailbag of tax-advantaged health savings accounts. That’s how we’ll restore market discipline to healthcare pricing. Kevin J. Kennedy Eaton Rapids, Mich.
the name of protecting the “rights” they have created, and to counteract Godgiven freedom and rights. gloRia BeidleR
Sutherlin, Ore.
“Desperately seeking Pulitzers” “The breathless trumpeter” (April 21) I couldn’t agree with you more about bias in the Associated Press. I haven’t subscribed to a newspaper for years because the AP stories are just paraphrased DNC press releases. RichaRd aspeR Marshfield, Wis.
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You characterized AP’s deputy managing editor as an honorable man. But given his statement that the lack of Christians in the news business is not an issue, I view him as at least disingenuous. Staffing at AP and the media in general are so lopsided against conservatives and Christians that common sense dictates that they should be better represented. Thomas sandlin Liberty Hill, Texas
“What an atheist looks like” (April 21) I found this article insulting to atheists and professed Christians alike. If an atheist went to a rally for Christians and penned an article labeling the attendees as lacking reason or simply “lost,” they would be wrong and self-righteous. TimoThy B. RoBinson Des Moines, Iowa
The five flags at the atheism rally— equality, charity, compassion, diversity, reason—were the marks of first century churches. No wonder those churches turned the world upside down. If the church in the 21st century wishes to do so again it will put these things into practice. And perhaps convert a few atheists.
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RogeR a. FaBeR Westminster, Colo.
“Bedroom politics” (April 21) When the government begins inventing “rights,” it is only a means to control (or tax) the public. Democrats and progressives have interjected themselves into our bedrooms and every other area of our private lives in
(April 21) Our proper national role is to protect ourselves and the world against despotism. The people concerned, whether in Vietnam, Iraq, or Afghanistan, must do their own nation-building. We should have been very explicit about offering allies a limited period of security in which to achieve a functioning government, with a planned and certain departure followed by substantial but conditional support. david hillquisT Arcadia, Mo.
“Wins and losses” (April 21) The urgent and difficult stories Mindy Belz tells us about Christians under persecution all over the world are one of only a few links we have to these brothers. The reminders bring us to prayer, call us back to our eternal perspective, and force us again to put our trust in a sovereign God. JenniFeR neuBeRT California, Md.
“Compared to what?” (April 21) Joel Belz noted that the Senate leadership hasn’t passed a budget in three and a half years. He could have added that the president chooses not to enforce laws he doesn’t like, such as the Defense of Marriage Act. The common thread? Both ignore their oaths and their responsibilities to uphold the Constitution. claRence gRaFTon Lynch Station, Va.
“Raising up scholars” (April 21) I greatly enjoyed the article and especially this quote: “Everyone deserves opportunity, no one deserves success.” But I noticed that none of the nine children in the photo of students attending this elite private school were boys. As a teacher working in more ethnically diverse schools, I’ve noticed boys falling by the educational wayside in a system dominated by women and
5/10/12 5:27 PM
often more geared toward girls. I hope boys get an equal opportunity to excel. Gakona, Alaska
“Reconciliation”
Health care
for people of faith
(April ) It was good to see a followup interview with Laura Hinson, who produced the documentary on Rwanda. Reconciliation takes time but thank God it can happen. Xenia, Ohio
“The gardener” (April ) Wow. I began reading and felt like I was being swept away by the tide. This is really good stuff.
Bakersfield, Calif.
“Tax time humor” (April ) I so enjoyed the fun Marvin Olasky poked at editors. It’s been a really long week during which my computer crashed and I may have lost much information. At any rate, your column lightened my mood. El Cajon, Calif.
“Animals as idols” (March ) I agree that some people wrongly value animals above humans, but some people see pets as completely disposable. I volunteer with an animal rescue group (mostly non-Christians) because that is the passion the Lord has placed on my heart, and I am routinely embarrassed by the poor witness of my Christian friends who surrender their pets for convenience. Asheville, N.C.
LETTERS AND PHOTOS Email: mailbag@worldmag.com Write: WORLD Mailbag, P.O. Box , Asheville, - Please include full name and address. Letters may be edited to yield brevity and clarity.
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5/14/12 3:24 PM
Andrée Seu Peterson
Under an open heaven Living in the Spirit brings into existence the things that are not
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KRIEG BARRIE
M under an open heaven. That’s why I wanted to be with him from the start, five and a half years ago. He believes God like a child; there is no shadow in his faith. Nothing shakes it, nothing takes it by surprise. He has no phases of what Mr. Lewis called “undulation.” He is one of those God chose “to be rich in faith” (James :). So when I came to Michigan after his release, to spend our first week together, I was disappointed, though I didn’t let on. I thought he would lay out a plan: “We’re gonna do this! We’re gonna do that! We’ll open a café and name it ‘The Living Room’! We’ll buy a ramshackle farmhouse and bus inner city kids to it and give them Jesus!” It was driving back to Pennsylvania that I remembered: the woman and two little boys we came upon at Painted Creek Trail, where I kept walking down the path with his father, and David ended up holding hands in a prayer circle on the little wooden bridge— that’s more what it will be like. Just natural. Another David, Dave Roberts from Transport for Christ, once told me that it all comes down to one-on-one ministry—all the programs, the organized outreach, and the dollars. Jesus chose men “to be with them.” There’s the pattern. My lover is the fresh wind of the Spirit, blowing through the rafters of my melancholy. My lover speaks of God “in season and out of season,” like Jesus at the well in Sychar, in his fatigue and hunger. There is no difference between his “religious” talk and his regular talk. He does not sound one way in church and another at the mall. Walking with him I feel no sides, no floor, no ceiling, and everything all new: No past, no future. No rules but God’s. No servitude but to Him. No man-made impossibilities. We do the adventure called “where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.” Let me be blunt: This is fun!
Email: aseupeterson@worldmag.com
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I have two friends: One for decades was gay and the other a lesbian. Now they are married, to each other—and they glow. At their wedding nine years ago, their joy was so appalling that one man came up to Rich and quipped, “In a year you’ll be just like the rest of us.” Rich turned and looked him in the eye: “Don’t you dare curse my marriage.” So many losses. So many failures. But David doesn’t tire of reminding me: All things—all things—are for the good of those who love God. Once we really believe that, David says, then we can not only accept those things, but even be thankful for them. He speaks this in the same tone of voice as he speaks about what he will do after lunch. There is a children’s book called Harold and the Purple Crayon. Four-year-old Harold would like to take a walk outside at night, but there is no moon, so he creates one with his purple crayon. He brings into existence the things that are not. This is also living in the Spirit. All the best things in my life were brought into being that way—from nothing. The things I schemed without Him mostly failed. As long as we are moving in the Spirit, David and I, I see no reason why we should not anticipate phenomenal blessings: the powers of darkness giving way, the territory of the enemy ceding, the kingdom of God expanding. I went for a long stroll and thought about other criteria for marriage: social compatibility, financial compatibility, pedigree, background, degrees, and certifications. It all weighed less than nothing in the scale when placed aside a childlike faith. I want to walk under an open heaven, a sky not occluded by unbelief, where all moments are God moments, and chance meetings with a woman and her boys on a wooden bridge become the next divine appointment. The time is short. Let those who are married be as though they were not, making the most of the time since the days are evil, and enjoying life with the one God has given them under the sun. A JUNE 2, 2012
WORLD
5/14/12 3:26 PM
Marvin Olasky
Building and preserving
A call to those who want to be Christian journalists, and a plea to protect Christian liberty
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WORLD JUNE 2, 2012
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The Obama regulations, if put into practice, will exclude from the “religious employer” category many Christian social service agencies, hospitals, and schools. Inconvenient truth No. : Some of those “Christian” institutions should be excluded, in theory. They are CINOs, Christian in name only (or Christians in nice outfits). In much of their practice they are government lookalikes. The Obama administration is right to define a religious organization as one working to inculcate its religious values. If a “Christian” organization has Jordan River posters or crosses on the wall but is a gospel-free welfare state adjunct, it should not receive special privileges. The Obama regulations are wrong in two ways, though. First, if the administration says inculcation is the only task of a religious organization, it ignores Christianity’s claim to deal with every square inch of our territory and every moment of our existence. Second, practice is more complicated than theory: It’s above any bureaucrat’s pay grade to determine which organization is truly religious and which is not. If both the White House and its critics do some rethinking, they can come to an agreement that protects liberty. At a minimum, we should agree to define a religious organization as one working to inculcate its religious values, but part of that may be helping widows and orphans, ministering to the sick and the imprisoned, and following Christ in other ways as well. Similarly, it’s fine to say that a religious organization should employ in supervisory positions those who share its religious tenets—because how else will the organization teach those values? But a stipulation that a Christian organization has to employ only Christians would stop a group from hiring as a janitor someone from the community perhaps on his way to embracing Christ—or it could push some who need a job to make premature confessions of faith. What’s dead wrong: The Obama demand that religious groups serve primarily those who share its religious tenets. Jesus helped many in need without first demanding a confession of faith. His followers have done the same for two millennia. The Obama administration can end this battle in the culture war by recognizing that Christians are called to minister to non-Christians, and have enriched America in the process. Government should not get in the way. A
KRIEG BARRIE
F, : Last October I taught in Asheville a week-long training course for mid-career people desiring to write for World News Group publications, and this October we’ll do it again. Last October we trained lawyers, homeschoolers, an accountant, an engineer, and others; now, two of them are regulars on World Radio, two have written for WORLD and worldmag.com, and others are freelancers. Interested readers who are good writers should send resumes and writing samples to June McGraw by July (jmcgraw@worldmag.com). Participants pay their own expenses, but tuition is free. The class is limited to : We meet partly in a conference room and partly in my house, and do a lot of writing and group editing, with an emphasis on journalistic feature writing rather than pure opinion or devotional pieces. Second, I’d like to tackle some wrong assumptions in the current furor about the Obama administration’s attack on religious liberty. The proximate cause of war, of course, is the Obama demand that all institutions, regardless of religious convictions, arrange to provide free contraceptives. I now want to upset both sides by saying that each is overlooking an inconvenient truth. Inconvenient truth No. : The Obama administration, by stipulating that an organization to be defined as a “religious employer” must primarily serve only people of its own faith, is beginning to treat Christians as many Muslim countries treat Christians. Those countries allow Christians to meet for worship in nondescript buildings, but that’s it. Christians cannot evangelize. They cannot make disciples. They cannot engage in social services and help others. Some Christians in Muslim lands have some freedom of worship. They do not have freedom of religion. Muslim restrictions cut against two prime Christian goals: evangelism, and seeking the welfare of the entire city, as Chapter of Jeremiah commands. For example, some Christians I visited in eastern Turkey had grudging permission to meet, as long as they kept a very low profile, with nothing on the exterior of their building indicating a church assembled there.
Email: molasky@worldmag.com
5/10/12 5:22 PM
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