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Stories from the past week:

Will God ensure "happy ending" to ecological crisis?
Rowan Williams, a Welsh theologian who is spiritual leader of the world's 70 million Anglicans, recently made some pointed remarks about human freedom -- our ability to both create and destroy -- that are highly relevant as we approach Earth Day on April 22. The Archbishop warned in a lecture that God will not intervene to prevent humanity from wreaking disastrous damage to the environment.
Douglas Todd, The Search, Vancouver Sun, April 16

Anglican entity has blessing of bishops
The move to create a new conservative Anglican jurisdiction in North America got an enormous boost yesterday as bishops representing three-quarters of the faith's worldwide adherents said they would recognize the breakaway faction in defiance of the wishes of the established churches of Canada and the United States. Meeting in London, the leaders of Anglican churches from Africa and other parts of the Southern Hemisphere said the new "province" would be seen as the home to "faithful Anglicans" in Canada and the United States and would be considered part of the worldwide communion.
National Post, April 17
Earlier: Stories about the Anglican schism over same-sex blessings

Ruins of ancient temple believed to be centre of biblical-era kingdom destroyed in 738 BC
Canadian team thinks the site is the one mentioned in a warning in the Old Testament book of Isaiah
CanWest News Service, April 17

He offered glitzy jobs, but preyed on women
A churchgoing corporate headhunter who posed as an entertainment executive to prey on female job applicants has been sentenced to five years in prison.
Toronto Star, April 17

Bambino would blush at expense
Opening Day in the new Yankee Stadium was planned for years. The goal was to preserve everything that was distinctive about the old Yankee Stadium, still standing across the street after 86 years as a centre of New York's athletic, cultural and even spiritual world. So when the Yankee fans started booing the home team in the seventh inning it seemed somehow right -- nothing had been lost from the old Yankee Stadium.
Father Raymond J. de Souza, National Post, April 17

Science, philosophy, spirituality not at odds
I do not blame North American natural scientists for feeling under siege by the Religious Right over evolution. Nasty legal and political battles have been plaguing the United States as biblical literalists crusade, sometimes successfully, to bring the teaching of creationism and Intelligent Design into the public school system.
Douglas Todd, Vancouver Sun, April 18

Richard John Neuhaus's last sermon
Babylon, as readers of the Bible will recall, was a sixth century B. C. Middle Eastern empire that conquered Jerusalem and thereby became an enduring symbol for the kingdom of the godless -- a harlot drunk on the blood of the saints, as the Book of Revelations puts it. American Babylon: Notes of a Christian Exile (Basic Books) seems to promise, therefore, a pretty stiff calling to account.
Philip Marchand, National Post, April 18
Earlier: Stories about the death of Fr. Richard John Neuhaus

A museum director fights back
Meanwhile, Palestinians are using the ownership controversy as another nail in what they hope will be the coffin of Israel. For more than half a century, Israel has possessed the Dead Sea Scrolls -- discovered in the middle part of the 20th century in caves near the Dead Sea's northwest shore -- exhibiting them in Jerusalem, and sending them around the world. Some of these two-millennium-old documents are to arrive at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto on June 27, for a six-month stay. But the Palestinians have decided, after all this time, that the scrolls were found on what they (dubiously) consider Palestinian land, therefore Palestinians own them. The Toronto Star recently displayed this nonsense on page one.
Robert Fulford, National Post, April 18

Tony Blair answers new calling
Former British PM's 'Faith Foundation' aims to bring together world's religions
Toronto Star, April 19

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Singled out by randomness
A giant cumulus cloud billows and threatens over Havana. It clutches fistfuls of sky, puffs out weightlessly, a mass of power that is arbitrary, unknowable -- and it can quickly turn into a lightning cloud and strike someone dead. Acclaimed director Jennifer Baichwal filmed the cloud for her new documentary Act of God, which will open Toronto's Hot Docs festival on April 30 and begin its theatrical release the next day. She wasn't after scientific observation when shooting the cloud, which beautifully bookends her film. She was after something far less clear.
Globe and Mail, April 19

Salvation Army overjoyed with clothing donations
Quality and quantity of Sun Run items pleases spokesman
Vancouver Sun, April 20

Colin Thatcher can pocket profits on memoir since he lives in Saskatchewan
Convicted killer Colin Thatcher is in luck he lives in Saskatchewan. If he had moved to Alberta or Manitoba, he likely wouldn't be able to make money from the sale of his new book.
Canadian Press, April 20
Earlier: Stories about Colin Thatcher

You can "hate" homosexuality but "love" homosexuals: Study
It turns out a study published in the March issue of the respected Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion says that this hate-the-sin-love-the-sinner belief could make conservative religious people more tolerant of "out groups," including, in their minds, homosexuals.
Douglas Todd, The Search, Vancouver Sun, April 20

Zen and the art of keeping it real
Zen Buddhism's best hope for a comeback in North America may well be a sometime hardcore punk bassist and Japanese B-grade monster movie actor who writes a column for a soft porn website and admits to cheating on his wife, experimenting with pot well into his thirties and to getting bored during meditation.
National Post, April 22

Jesus, Mary and the real estate king
A two-inch statue of St. Joseph is fast becoming a selling tool for homeowners and real estate agents trying to gain an edge in an uncertain market. As tradition has it, the replicas of the husband of the Virgin Mary are usually buried upside down and a foot below ground and are supposed to lend a divine hand in helping to find a willing buyer.
National Post, April 23

Polygamist Blackmore wants us to pay his legal costs
Legal aid won't pay to defend Canada's most notorious polygamist. So now, Winston Blackmore wants the B.C. government to pay his legal costs. To allow time for this to be sorted out, Crown prosecutor Terry Robertson agreed Wednesday to adjourn the case against Blackmore, 52, and James Oler, 44, until May 22. Both men are fundamentalist Mormons. Unlike mainstream Mormons, they believe that to reach the highest realm of heaven, they need to have at least three wives.
Daphne Bramham, Vancouver Sun, April 23
Earlier: Stories about the polygamy debate

Stumbling on the Vatican beat
Without absolving the Vatican of its own responsibilities, it must be noted that a major source of misinformation on the Vatican comes from the very journalists who cover it. The Italian vaticanisti often embroider their reporting with everything from reasoned guesses to rank speculation. Sometimes this style of reporting -- which is well understood inside Italy as not being the gospel truth -- leaks out into the other languages and creates confusion when Mediterranean equivocation is translated into Anglo-Saxon hard news.
Father Raymond J. de Souza, National Post, April 23

Dear jihadists: flab is the enemy
And so, on page 22 of Jihad Recollections -- which is billed as the first radical Muslim magazine published in English, but is essentially a jumbled jeremiad of socio-political conspiracy, refried grievance, tedious hagiography and weapons fetishism -- is a story titled, "Getting in Shape Without Weights."
Vinay Menon, Toronto Star, April 23
Earlier: Stories about Islam and the West

April 23/2009