I rented the film Munich this week and watched, for the first time, the grisly, sobering account about a team of Israeli commandos who picked off and killed targeted Palestinians in retribution for the massacre of Israeli athletes at the Olympic Games in that German city in 1972. As I watched it, a finalist this year for the Oscar for best film, I thought about what is taking place now as the Israeli government has moved fiercely into the Gaza Strip to rescue an abducted Israeli soldier.In 2001, we visited Munich and the spacious grounds where the games had taken place three decades before. I had expected to spot some of that in the Steven Spielberg film. Instead, I saw 2 hours of cold-blooded killing, bombings and revenge — calculated state sponsored retribution. It underscored how the vicious and bitter Jewish-Arab relations have been in that region, almost without let-up going back to the formation of the Israeli state in 1948. Now new major bloodshed seems immanent in that region because of ancient hatreds and holy determination.

From time to time, we locally write about authorities and peace workers who try to explain the sheer complexities of the the military, political and religious bitterness that stretches back centuries. More than a few times, I turn down interviews with experts who say they have unique takes on the numbing issue. Journalists focused on that patch of earth have some of the most impossible work. What I find especially troubling is that, given how many thousands have died back and forth over the decades in bombings, raids and repressive policies, Israel is impelled to use a single soldiers abduction to launch such new fury with its huge military might.

That kind of behavior smacks of lack of restraint so common in military mindsets. When I was in the U.S. Army, short-fused sergeants used such tactics commonly. Something could be out of place and left undone in the barracks, and a drill sergeant was ready to cancel weekend passes or have every man in the barracks stand at attention interminably until someone fessed up for guard duty infractions or leaving a mess in the mess hall. Dozens or hundreds of men could face the full consequences for one mans action, misbehavior or defiance. It only take one incident, i.e. an abduction of an Israeli soldier, for a pretext to unload on their neighbors.

So many innocent Palestinians settlers especially have been uprooted — again — and sent running for their lives as military equipment rolls across Gaza destroying major bridges, a power plant and homes. Now have come air strikes. For a single abducted soldier? Can such escalated military actions for a single soldiers freedom be justified? As much as we try to see both sides of this confounding endless struggle, my pure instincts, plus understanding of the situation, seem to favor the Palestinians for whom a permanent homeland has got to be a solution. For all of Hamas mistakes and unbending calls to destroy Israel, one can hardly easily side with Israels methods on the West Bank this week.

Rabbi Michael Lerner, prolific editor of Tikkun and national chairman of the Tikkun Community Network of Spiritual Progressives, wisely criticizes both sides. His Friday e-mail renewed his call for transformations in consciousness and in the heart. He scolded Palestinians, Violence doesnt work and it is not working for you, he said. …dont be surprised to find that war (is) getting carried to your doors, to your electricity and water supply. He said Palestinians cant win by kidnapping, sending missiles over the border or throwing rocks. Your only power is moral credibility, and you build that by giving yourself to the vision of peace and non-violence and over of the enemy.

To Israel, Lerner said, by all international standards, it has no right to be occupy Gaza and the West Bank. But it has an absolute “obligation to treat the civilian population with certain respect and basic human rights. Israel continually fails to do this and has become one (not the worst, but one) of the worlds major human rights violators.” He equates Israel’s taking such suffering to the Palestinians as the kind of collective punishment that ruthless dictators have used against the civilian populations of countries that that they controlled to the horror of the rest of the world.

Tragically, the U.S. seems to be lying back and letting things take their course rather than putting pressure and terms on support of Israel. The total demonizing of Hamas has produced predictable results. So, the innocent will keep dying in the land where major world religions took root and spoke of peace.

Americas greatness can be told in innumerable stories of tenacity, courage and endurance. Groups of people with like ideas, such as the Mormons, created their place in the American fabric through their determination and unity. A prime example is the historic quest of the Mormon handcart companies, made up of families who put all their belonging on two-wheeled carts and trudged from a rail line in Iowa City, Iowa, across the plains and mountains to reach their Zion in the Salt Lake Valley of Utah.We took in this summers offering of 1856! The Musical that is being performed through June 30 at the Ikeda Theater at the Mesa Arts Center, 1 E. Main St. Its an amazing and powerful production that could be staged anywhere in America to convey the human spirit and offer yet another account of a religious groups struggles to find a place to practice their faith in the face of persecution. 1856!,” with a cast of 140, is special on another level because it is wholly the creative work of Cory Ellsworth, a Mesan, who wrote the music and script, with help of professionals. It was first staged last summer at Mountain View High School in Mesa with a cast of 80. It especially resonated with members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who regard the handcart treks as part of their religious heritage. Of course, it comes on the 150th anniversary of that pioneer journey.

We saw the 2005 production, got the sound-track CD and have been playing it repeatedly for a year. So it was with great anticipation when we bought third-row tickets and watched the crisply delivered musical at Ikeda on June 28 (www.1856themusical.com). Smartly choreographed with the sweeping feeling of an epic event, 1856! comes at you with a full experience of what it must have been like to be uprooted and put through the hostile venture on a continent an ocean away. The program notes, Their story is Mormon legend and a national treasure. It is a story that has few rivals in western or American history.

Ellsworth, whose professional work has taken him far and wide, was teaching early morning seminary to teens in London in 1998 when, he said, he found time to ponder the significance of the early pioneers sacrifices and their faith and testimony. This deep respect and reverence soon resulted in his penning a few poems that led to lyrics, melodies, characters and a story line for a musical, he said.

Nearly 3,000 Mormons, many of them immigrants from England, chose to make the journey across the plains with simple handcarts because they lacked the financial means for oxen and wagons. The musical, with scenes set on the docks of England as well as along the American route, captures the deep themes of family bonds, weighing faith and doubt with perseverance and ultimate goals. The story offers a sharp contract of handcart companies that got the jump on the weather and left Iowa City in order to arrive in Salt Lake well before the winter storms in the Rockies versus one that got off late and got trapped in the storms and lost loved ones. Strikingly moving is the account of how brethren left Salt Lake in November to rescue the distressed company and get them through the last hundreds of miles.

The most moving scene came when family after family watched a child die from the bitter cold, hunger and sickness. Five bodies of girls were laid side by side on the stage while the parents evoked their grief through imagining their hopes and dreams for their children. I couldnt help but think of the musicals creator Cory Ellsworth and is wife Amy whose own son Ben died last December in Argentina in a train accident while on his Mormon mission. So much promise lost. Cory, who directs the play, turns up inconspicuously in several scenes.

The cast is superb, the lighting and staging work are exquisite — and the finale with the full, large cast epitomizes what is great and unique about theater. The quality of the show make it not surprising that the cast of 1856! The Musical heads to Salt Lake City to do five shows at the Capitol Theatre July 20-22 and 25-26 (www.arttix.org). My bet is this is a production that has legs and will be revived again and again as a piece of the American experience. Catch the show if you can. (www.mesaartscenter.com/EventDetail.aspx?).

The video camera never blinks, and what it records can sink even a good priest. Amid the swirl of concurrent controversies in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Phoenix in recent years has been the case of the Rev. John Cunningham, a very learned pastor and scholar, who tried to be too accommodating at a wedding in Gilbert and found himself caught on tape.In a pluralistic world of marriages between people of diverse faiths, its very common for clergy of different religions to participate in the ceremonies to satisfy couples and families and their faith traditions. Father Jack, well-known as an erudite, liberal-thinking priest, coulda, woulda, shoulda not taken the chance when Lowell Pester and Jacqueline Payne asked him to conduct the nuptial Mass set for April 24, 2004, at borrowed facilities, St. Annes Catholic Church in Gilbert. Cunningham should have nixed, on the spot, allowing the brides longtime friend, the Rev. Robert Haux, an Anglican priest from Georgia, to participate in the wedding, which included the consecration of the Eucharist.

Cunningham had founded St. Bridgets Catholic Church in 1985 and then was appointed to launch a new parish in the Gilbert-Higley area, St. Mary Magdalene, in July 2002. That new parish was holding its services in a school gym and the couple wanted a beautiful church setting for their nuptials. So St. Annes in the neighboring parish was booked.

On the wedding day, the videotape rolled, and a Catholic wedding was consummated. But four days later, Cunningham was out of his job and suspended by his boss, Bishop Thomas Olmsted, pending a diocesan investigation. Throughout it all, the priest insisted he had followed canon law, that the Anglican priest stood primarily off to the side and Haux did not participate in the consecration of the Eucharist, nor did he say any words to mimic the words of consecration of the Eucharist. Those are words from a slander lawsuit Cunningham would file almost a year later against to St. Annes employees for turning him in to the diocese.

Cunningham was in limbo for two years as the bishop consulted with the Vatican for advisement, then opted to put two monsignors from Catholic University with good credentials to work investigating the wedding incident vis-a-vis Catholic regs, namely

Canon 908: It is forbidden for Catholic priests to concelebrate the Eucharist with priests or ministers of churches … not in full communion with the Catholic Church. In the end after forwarding, backforwarding and putting the tape in slow motion, Msgrs. Ronny Jenkins and Brian Ferme felt confident they had found 15 specific violations, most importantly that the Anglican priest was engaged in the Eucharist rites. They said Haux was wearing a chasuble — the priestly garment (not some business suit) — meaning some serious business. They determined Haux extended his hands over the bread and wine before it was consecrated, that he, indeed, spoke words of consecration, lifted up chalices of wine and received communion at the altar as a Catholic priest would.

And so it fell to the bishop to mete out punishment according to the monsignors’ recommendations. In simple terms, there were four: removing him as priest (previously accomplished), suspension for a time period (he had already been suspended for two years); spend time in a retreat; and make a public statement of apology. Text of that four-paragraph letter of apology of June 20 to the bishop is in full view on The Catholic Sun website (www.catholicsun.org). Cunningham has now apologized unconditionally for his conduct and included the then-pastor of St. Annes and its two employees whom he sued for slander.

Olmsted has reinstated Cunningham as a priest in good standing and granted him early retirement after 30 years as priest. He has been teaching religion at Arizona State University Polytechnic, writing and interacting with his considerable faith community of colleagues and friends. Retired priests rarely quit, so many wonder what he will now do.

Cunningham was a regular writer for our Clergy Corner columns in the Tribune for many years. What he said was compelling, courageous, provocative, thoughtful. He demonstrated deep scholarship. He came across always as a thinking-Catholics priest. He was one of nine priests with enough moxie to sign the Phoenix Declaration calling for church and society to be fully tolerant of gay and lesbians — only to be ordered by Olmsted to remove their names. A single retired priest in Phoenix refused and had his priest faculties stripped. It deeply pained priests like Cunningham to have to remove their names from such a document for justice. And it only underscored how some faiths limit freedom of expression.

Among the comments I received from the initial article on June 28 about the disposition of Father Jacks case was this from Julie and Jim Flynn, founding members of St. Mary Magdalene: We are now just happy he is now allowed to do what he does so well — serve his Gods people … Father John helped us to feel good to be Catholic — something that hasnt happened for a long time.

Thomas Schildgen, ASU Polytechnic professor and chairman of technology management, said he wasnt shocked by the outcome, but this form of public humiliation was very predictable. In my opinion, this had nothing to do with the teachings and life of Christ, he said. Rather it evolved around the perceived enforcement of canon law by a select few that was clearly fearful of Johns ability to embrace diversity. We can only hope there are more John Cunninghams in this world.

Open a weekend church bulletin or the monthly or weekly newsletter (paper or on-line), and you probably will find a prayer list: The folks in the congregation for whom everyone is asked to focus their prayers on. How much do you you need to know about their needs?A United Methodist Church in Mesa has just published its monthly newsletter with a full page devoted to the prayer list. It shows two groups of names. Fifty-five names are under one headed “please remember these people in your prayers. Nothing more in included. And there are 56 more named under this heading: For those who are shut-ins and in care homes. Thats a tall order — 111 people to pray for. Another newsletter has a section showing specific needs: for a family in the death of a grandson, another in the death of an aunt, two people named as they recover from surgery; and another recovering from a fall and subsequent undergoing hand surgery.

Lots of careful judgment comes into play as pastors, deacons and caregivers of congregations decide what to share with their people to make them aware of health problems, grief issues and personal troubles of members. Its a balancing act between honoring requests for privacy and making the congregation have greater empathy knowing exactly whats ailing Ed. Some folks are tell-all types and dont care if the average member of their congregation knows it was a mastectomy, prostate cancer or liposuction. Yet others want to stay under the radar screen. They may find it OK that the church knows that they were in the hospital for tests, but want nothing reported when it comes out to be a need for treatment for lung cancer or cataracts.

Some parishioners confine knowledge of anything happening to them to a pastor at most, with strict instructions to have nothing said or published about them. They have to play along with the mystery of why Gertrude has not been in church for three weeks.

Then there are the members who slip in and out of hospitals and clinics and get treatments without a peep to anyone in their faith community, including pastoral care ministers. It may be they dont want all the fuss (cards, flowers and attention) or they feel steeled to get through their medical issue all by themselves.

During my three years as a deacon, one of my responsibilities was knowing the welfare of those families in my “neighborhood group.” It took sensitivity knowing how much to ask about conditions, what I should pass on to pastors and others and what to have put into the church bulletin and newsletter about them. More than a few times, well-meaning efforts to share what confronts them were too detailed or explicit. The other risk is for nothing to be said to a congregation when, in fact, the ailing member would have preferred more disclosure — leading to calls, visitors, cards and prayer and maybe better healing.

I suspect the time will come where congregations might sadly go the way of the health industry, controlled by the 1996 public law 104-191, commonly call HIPPAA for The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. Its purpose is to keep peoples health and medical information private. Maybe it will be impermissible to publish prayer lists because that might suggest medical treatment. The pastor may only ask the congregation to pray for those missing that day from the pews — be they fishing or breathing their last breath in a hospital bed.

We’ll never live to see it is a common phrase. We spout that when talking about ideas for change that are far too ambitious for the reality at hand. When I was younger, I naively saw this world as a place that would get better and better because of the unstoppable march of progress with the help of enlightened thinking and a strong public will to work toward righting wrongs.Part of that thinking had to do with the United States of America, which I thought was the good-intentioned agent that would foster the change: end hunger, clean up the worlds pollution, make education possible for all, ensure basic health care for every human, and spread democracy by example. As a Peace Corps volunteer in the heady 1960s, I thought that way.

Now at 60, I am amazed at how many times I have come to realize how much wont change in my remaining years on this earth. It is as if I have given up, or that my idealism has been compromised, or that I have lost confidence in what we can or will do. Much of it, of course, is a much better understanding of human vices, especially the ruthlessness that comes to those with power and money — and politicians especially have both. Its that way across the world.

On July 6, George W. Bush joins our growing group of Baby Boomers hitting 60. He has talked a lot about it already. Look from him to reflect on it more. He can affect this generation and the next ones more than anyone.

Things have gotten so increasingly out of balance — the wealthy and powerful having their way in all sectors of life — that its difficult to see the nations and worlds lower and middle classes every again having a chance. My pessimism grows with the mantra of the security-at-all-cost crowd. Civil liberties and freedoms no longer seem worth protecting to the conservatives who are driving the discussion and who once championed individual rights. So many who are deeply religious and faithful are aghast at how much mayhem is being committed by those spouting values, righteousness and devotion to God. A great tragedy has been how the fear of terrorism drumbeat has so perfectly silenced us, especially the more easily manipulated lesser educated.

With global warming seemingly moving to that tipping point of no return, with this administration so successful in chipping away at our rights and liberties with such a steady cadence that is hardly protested and with corporate-driven democracy so profoundly in place, I wont be so foolish to believe we can turn things around. Not even at the polls, given how rapidly free elections have become an endangered event in America because of technology, cunning and the high stakes of politics.

I wish I could say people of faith, through prayer, wont let the bad happen on this planet. But I fear we have become too polarized to willingly discuss together the common great threats. We are too unwilling to put so much aside to stop the many kinds of tyrannies around us. I imagine my being 70 or 80 or 90 now. How much would I simply accept as “the way its just going to be for the rest of my life”? At what point in a lifetime, does the heart stop believing that things can change?

What are the planets current religions doing these days for which their future leaders will have to apologize? Seems they could look at what they are doing now, make reforms and adjustments and right the wrongs in their own time and apologize for their own mistakes — to todays victims. Its tiresome hearing leaders apologize for the mistakes of tyrants and their bad leaders long dead. Apologizing now for contemporary crimes and misdeeds might be heard by current victims and families.Recently the Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz of Krakow, Poland, apologized for the actions of Roman Catholic priests who allegedly collaborated with a secret-security agency that was dreaded during the years the communists controlled Poland. I apologize to those who think that they have been hurt by the attitude of some priests, a Polish news agency quoted Dziwisz. He called on Poles to not lose faith in the church for such mistakes. Files had turned up showing that priests had collaborated with security forces that monitored the daily lives of Poles before communism fell in Poland in 1989.

The northern branch of the Moravian Church has publicly apologized for its participation in slavery in America centuries ago. At their recent convention, the 12-state province passed a resolution that called slavery the low point of Moravians in North America. Its southern province adopted a similar resolution in April, according to Associated Press reports. For example, when the Moravian community in Bethlehem, Pa., was founded 250 years ago, it had about a dozen slaves as part of its fellowship. They acknowledged that Moravian members owned and sold slaves. In North Carolina, most black Moravians were restricted to their own congregations. At the convention, some questioned the appropriateness of such an apology, but others said such a public statement was necessary to acknowledge a dark side of the church’s history.

The worlds religions seem to be in such a fierce and determined battle to keep control of what they think they are. Traditions, orthodoxy and timeworn teachings are identified as being under attack, so it calls for extreme measures to counter the “radicals” and reformers and perceived enemies. As a result, leaders take extraordinary steps in “defense” for which they may apologize generations later. When Pope John Paul II apologized in 2000 for the Catholic Churchs treatment of Jews through the centuries, it prompted San Francisco Chronicle columnist Joan Ryan to note, It is quite a remarkable and admirable thing that a church that considers itself holy, that believes its popes are guided by the hand of God, would acknowledge and ask forgiveness for mistakes of the past. But what about the mistakes of the present? Let’s hope acknowledgment of today’s exclusion and rejection of women won’t have to wait for whoever is pope during the next Jubilee.

Will women, gays, minorities, the poor, AIDS victims, refugees, peoples in Sudan and Iraq and so many countries and others be singled out someday for how they have been marginalized and treated, forgotten and exploited?

So much nasty stuff is going one these days by religionists, by misguided leadership, by harmful doctrine and misinterpreted scripture, and people are getting hurt. None of us may live long enough to hear the apologies if and when the come. Holy are those faiths and faith leaders who recognize their transgressions here and now, rectify them and seek forgiveness.

Back in 1964 when I was valedictorian of my small Iowa high school class of 47 students, it wasnt the school districts practice for the top student to give a speech. Sometimes, I wonder what I might have said. I was incensed by school officials in Las Vegas, Nev., who cut the microphone of top graduate and straight-A student Brittney McComb when she delivered her valedictory speech June 15.They had prescreened the text of her talk and said the last part would have to go because of the six references to God and two biblical references. Yet, when McComb, one of three valedictorians, gave her speech she felt compelled to communicate from her heart and share her faith. So she let go, and officials turned down the microphone in the middle of her talk to her nearly 400 fellow graduates. As you can expect, that step offended classmates and the audience to jeer. I would have been standing and jeering, too.

My message was all about love and it was all about my personal experience — that is not offensive, the plucky teen said. She said the heart of her message at Foothill High School was that Gods love is so great. Afterwards her classmates swamped McComb with words of support for defying school officials and their wimpish politically correct position to ban religious elements from her speech. Officials didnt care for statments like: … even in the Bible, it says that the name of Jesus will be hated. Later McComb told the Jay Sekulow Live!” radio show, The thing is, it is freedom of speech, so I was upset. She noted that an atheist called a news station to say that McComb should have been allowed to continue to talk and that her microphone should not have been cut.

School officials told the media that it has policies on what valedictorians can and cannot say and students are required to submit the text of planned speeches before they can be delivered. And students are told that any deviation from the script, means the microphone will be cut.

Cant you just see the petty little censor holding a photocopy of her speech in one hand and the other hand squeezing the switch on the sound system? Good, God! Imagine the adrenaline rush that McComb had as she continued to speak anyway, and how this will stick with her and all the students for years to come. One defining moment of courage in the face of censorship.

McComb has been all over the national media in the days since the incident. I went through four years of school at Foothill, and they taught me logic, and they taught me freedom of speech, she told her local newspaper. Gods the biggest part of my life. Just like other valedictorians thank their parents, I wanted to thank my Lord and Savior.

Shame of school officials everywhere who try to pull a stunt like that to prevent anyone from being offended by someones faith. A Muslim valedictorian should be able to effusively thank Allah, an Wiccan free to thank the forces of earth and living things, an atheist whatever. Lets see what powers and rocks these kids boats, what has brought them to this pinnacle of accomplishment. Do we want valedictorian that fit some preconceived mold?

Thankfully, most school districts cut some slack here, I believe. God gets mentioned often at graduations. Those that are heavy-handed here communicate a terrible message. Classmates and the audience are being sold short if the argument is they will get proselytized in a 10-minute address. What do they want? Some propaganda piece on how free enterprise and capitalism brings equal opportunity to all?

McComb said it best: Her audience was wise enough to see was expressing her opinions, not preaching. Incidents like this speak volumes about where this nation might be headed — where oppressive authority has its hands on the controls and governs what we think and say. “Question Authority” is still just about the best bumper sticker out there. Thank God, for all the Brittany McCombs of this world. Speak out and speak often, and keep the faith.

I dont see evidence of it, but the folks touting the house church movement say it has taken off. They assert sharply more families are giving up pews and the view of stained-glass windows and choir lofts for the worship of God in family rooms, sitting on the floor or folding chairs and parking in cul-de-sacs.None other that evangelical religious landscape watcher George Barna has become a house churchman. The Barna Group founder talks about it in his latest book on American faith, Revolution. And in St. Louis and Denver this summer, Barna will speak to House2House conferences. He will talk about the new trend in a workshop, An Army of Ordinary People. Barnas research of 5,000 randomly selected adults suggests that 9 percent had attended a house church in a typical week. Barna surmises that one in five adults attends a home church at least once a month. The rarely have professionally trained or ordained leaders, and overwhelmingly they are evangelicals.

The home crowd says its a little-known phenomenon how families are quietly forgoing the churches in their cities and towns for trips to homes for a couple hours of worship, prayer, fellowship and potluck. Once seen as an aberration, it has been moving from a trend o an established worship option, they say.

The list of Valley home churches continues to grow (www.eastvalleyhousechurch.org/Churches.htm). The June on-line newsletter from Phoenix Area House Churches includes a commentary that Home-Grown Churches Becoming Popular. It suggests millions of Americans are breaking from the traditional church setting to recreate the spiritual intimacy of first-century Christian fellowships. It propounds that since 2000, more than 20 million Americans began exploring not only house churches, but worksplace ministries and on-line faith communities. Some folks are remaining in their own churches but supplementing their spiritual life with the typically nondenominational worship gatherings of a dozen or so.

The article quotes a former megachurch member, Greg Windsor, who lamented it can be hard to know those around you in the pews, but that is not a problem with autonomous home churches where prayer time can be effusive and detailed. He asserts that in two centuries of Christianity the original New Testament worship experience has been constantly embellished and altered and distorted like making photocopies of photocopies and getting distortion and loss of sharpness.

House churches are not unlike the home school movement, also driven by dissatisfaction with traditional institutions of education or worship, along with an independent, even maverick, spirit and a longing for the basics. Barna warns that a house church group may find itself can suffer from bad teaching and errant theology creeping into the process.

Clearly house churches meet the needs of some, but like do-it-yourself home remodeling, it falls to the ordinary people, as Barna says to know what they’re doing and move it beyond cozy fellowship, taking turns reading scripture and offering the meaning to others on couches and Lazyboys.

I recently overhead a colleague end a discussion with someone with the words, "and thats why I dont go to church. I didn’t hear the first part of the conversation, but her last remarks caught my attention. Oddly, my first thought was that this good person doesn’t seem to be lacking in any of the qualities fostered traditionally within the walls of churches.There are millions and millions out there with good reason, in their minds, to "not go to church. As someone who only misses church while traveling, I can make a lot of excuses why simply being in church has benefits and value. The other side of me can build a strong case for staying as far away from churches as possible. We can think our way into or out of anything. Spouses have to try to agree on a church, and sometimes one will say, "I want to go to a different church." That may come when one is worn out from money appeals, too many obligatory, exhausting events scheduled, too many tasks assigned or someone has made the kind of clumsy, rude, insulting statement that people in churches are notorious for making. But they stand fast their in their membership in the same church bruises, tired feet and tens of thousands of dollars given away. Sometimes, it’s plain loyalty and recognizing that no place is perfect and they can be forces to shape the life in that faith community.Though it trite, it bears mentioning that those who take the time and trouble to darken the door of a house of worship are patients in a hospital seeking to get better. Whether its sinners seeking forgiveness or folks keenly aware that faith communities provide valuable life supports, I am convinced the benefits are considerable even when the theology might be troubling or flawed. I fantasize sometimes about staying home Sunday mornings — watching CBS’ wonderful Sunday Morning show with Charles Osgood and going from on news talk program ("Meet the Press, Face the Nation and This Week) to the next. There would be leisurely time reading the newspaper and getting to see NFL kickoffs and the start of Diamondback games on the East Coast. But then theres the downside: Missing seeing my many friends, hearing a compelling sermons, attending an adult class, coffee time on the patio, catching up on news, getting the experience of helping out where I feel needed on the campus and potlucks full of heavenly food. A house of worship does, in fact, shape ones spirituality, provides some of the happiest good times and memories and gives families education and experiences for healthier lives. Church camps, youth groups, Sunday school and talents shows are just some of character-building programs that matter. Of course, many dont go to church because there is no tradition of it in their families. Often, one or both parents have been burned by religion and its abuses. Some, in fact, have "outgrown" church. The blizzard of media, books, films, magazines and education they have been exposed to has taken them far beyond the stories of wandering desert tribes 2,000 to 6,000 years ago. Some have developed "full lives" with hobbies (boating, hiking, traveling, golf, etc.) and rich family activities that cannot be cramped by church. And for men especially, the church doesn’t resonated with them. Nothing about it can hook them in for the long haul. They’ll make the Christmas and Easter runs to church, but thats it. I think it comes down to developing a habit. It comes down to "seeking and ye shall find." It comes down to being open to what awaits you there. A key is to explore what meets your needs. Avoid being trapped into a faith or belief system that conflicts with where you feel led. If what they are selling doesnt feel right, keep moving on. But staying home all together on Sunday morning leaves you out of a valuable adventure. Rarely does a church regular say, "If only I had stayed home all those Sundays…."

Southern Baptists are hitting the liquor again. Theres plenty of booze in the Bible, plenty of brew swallowed by the storied patriarchs of the Good Book. But Southern Baptists arent impressed. At their gathering of messengers this week in Greensboro, N.C., they reaffirmed their hard stand against liquor and spirits. Drink, and you shouldnt be any kind of a leader, they say.Thirty-five years ago, I would pass by the museum home of Frances Willard on my way to classes for my journalism graduate degree at Northwestern University In Evanston, Ill. In 1874, Willard had helped to found the Womens Christian Temperance Union, the famed WCTU, which fought the influence and effects of alcohol on families. She became its president in 1879 and turned the WCTU into one of the largest womens organizations in the 19th century, a group that helped bring about Prohibition experiment of the 1920s and early 1930s.

Over the years, the WCTU came to be regarded as a stern, unbending group determined to get all forms of alcohol removed from the planet. They never had any shortage of cases of human tragedies related to alcohol.

Baptists passed a resolution this week calling for total opposition to the manufacturing, advertising, distributing and consuming of alcoholic beverages. It also urged that anyone serving on a Southern Baptist committee or who is a trustee to abstain from alcohol. Since the churchs founding 161 years ago. some 57 resolutions about alcohol have been passed at meetings.

I opened my Strongs Concordance to the Bible, showing how many times a word is used. It lists “wine” as being mentioned 230 times in scripture, not including wines, winepress and such related words as vineyard and vine. Some examples: … Your vats will brim over with new wine. (Proverbs 3:10). Or The Lord will reply to them, I am sending you grain, new wine and oil, enough to satisfy you fully. (Joel 2:19). At the wedding banquet in Cana (John 2), the wine was gone, and Jesus worked his miracle by changing water into wine. There’s this vineyard references, for example: “You haven’t brought us into a land flowing with milk and honey or given us an inheritance of fields and vineyards. (Numbers 16:14)

The Raleigh News and Observer quoted a Durham, N.C., pastor somewhat conflicted about a potential hypocrisy — the Bible says one thing but Bible-adherent Christians doing something else. Its embarrassing to get into a position where were forbidding what Jesus did, said the Rev. Andrew Davis, saying he has not touched alcohol since becoming a Christian at age 19.

That article noted, In many Southern Baptist churches, abstinence from alcohol is expected of all church leaders, whether they are pastors, deacons or Sunday school leaders. In some congregations, it is spelled out in the churchs constitution or covenant. Who enforces this? How can a good dinner wine turn an upstanding Baptist into a leadership loser?

A blanket Baptist ban on booze may save some vulnerable souls from abuse but it smacks of religious hypocrisy. On one hand, its insisting on the inerrancy of the Bible and its fail-proof, practical teaching for all generations, but then ultimately being selective about what parts ultimately apply.

What about the cheap wine soaked into a sponge and lifted to the dry lips of Jesus as he was about to die on the cross?

Would the Baptists of that day have condemned such a gesture of easing thirst and suffering to ensure a greater goal: that Jesus went to his death entirely sober.