When I started writing primarily about religion for the Tribune more than 20 years ago, it seemed more of a niche subject. Back then there was still the notion that your religion was private. And along with sex and politics, one should avoid discussing religion because it would lead to needless divisiveness and bad feelings. The world changed. Whole societies erupted into conflict with sides fervently driven by the unquestionable rightness of ones faith, with God, of course, ordaining the followers as the precious chosen. In the U.S., Christian fundamentalism emerged as a united force to change public policy through electing its loyal followers, who, then, believed they had a license to bring about the makings of a Christian theocracy.The news is relentless with the conflict du jour. A good example came this week with the Vatican excommunicating six nuns from the Monastery of Our Lady of Charity and Refuge in Hot Springs, Ark., because they would not renounce their longtime membership in the Community of the Lady of All Nations, also known as the Army of Mary, based in Quebec, Canada. The Armys founder, Marie-Paul Giguere, believes she is the reincarnation of the Virgin Mary. (www.arkansascatholic.org/article.php?id=1006). The nuns opted to bear the sting of the Catholic Church and keep on believing what they thought was right.So much of conflict revolves around human-distilled rules ascribed as Gods will. Dont join anything if you dont now and always buy the groups miracle origin and developed dogma.Of all places, Arizona State University became the fertile soil in 2003 for formation of the Center for the Study of Religion and Conflict. It was one of President Michael Crows early projects when he came. He named Linell Cady as the centers director, and it has flourished. In fast order, it launched large and small efforts to study the nature of religious, ethnic and social conflict and has brought to ASU numerous international voices to lecture in those areas.Speaking on Oct. 11, for example, will be Michael Scheuer, a familiar face on CBS News, where he is a consultant, and a visitor on many other news shows. (He is about the only one who ever responds to questions with, Sir,. The former head of the CIAs Bin Laden unit soared in public interest for his books Imperial Hubris and Through Our Enemies Eyes: Osama bin Laden, Radical Islam and the Future of America. Scheur, whose next book is Marching Toward Hell: America and Islam After Iraq will lecture at 4:30 p.m. at the ASU College of Law Great Hall. His topic will be Two Steps Toward Hell: The Scare-Mongers, the Caliphate and Islamofascism. (www.asu.edu/csrc).The centers fall newsletter showcases how it used a Ford Foundation grant for a Difficult Dialogues initiative. It brought together some 16 ASU faculty from various department for yearlong workshops on religiously charged conflicts and finding models for alternatives to contentious conversations. The article notes that the university classroom brings together students and faculty with fervent religious beliefs. Because some especially function in the context of their faith and use it as a filter, they may well react passionately to whats said in class. A faculty member may be accused of bias in lecture material because of religious background, or discussions may be tepid because no one wants to venture near a discussion related to spiritual beliefs. Writer Roberta Burnett quotes project coordinator Garrett Batten, who said the program can serve as a national model for other schools seeking to develop the study of religion and conflict in curricula and the classroom.Said Delia Saenz, associate professor of social psychology, There is a tremendous amount of research that points to specific structured dialogue techniques that can move conflict-laden exchanges toward a reduction in intensity and an increase in understanding, even when participants dont ultimately agree. Saenz, who is the director of ASUs Intergroup Relations Center, added, These are tremendously important skills for the classroom as well as society at large.

Religion is so beset with controversy, divisiveness, scandal and conflict, and those who want nothing to do with organized faiths can make a pretty good case. And who hasnt looked from inside his or her chosen or life-assigned religion and wanted to try something else — or nothing at all?More free weekends, fewer assignments and meetings and less busywork. More money to spend on other things. Other places to put our energies.But most of know it isnt that easy. We can compile a list of the merits of being engaged in active religion, even with its warts, hypocrisy and human failings. In most cases, the religious wants and preferences of family members dictate what we can, in fact, do, and we stay put. Surely, organized religion gets high marks for its capacity to deliver good to others on a mass scale just because of the numbers who can band together out of a primal sense of compassion. Debi More of Red Mountain Christian Center in Mesa and its outreach coordinator to Church on the Street Ministry wrote us about what the church and the street ministry do for the homeless who live on Phoenix streets. Our church and three dedicated families have made a commitment to financially help Church on the Street quarterly, she said. When we went in August, there were about 150 men and women in need, she said. The volunteers brought a grill and cooked hamburgers for the people who typically get only hot dogs and beans. The team ran out after grilling and giving out 300 hamburgers. Going into Phoenix and being around the homeless is not for everyone, More said. It is a bit scary, but it is so rewarding. I cant even explain how good you can feel when you help someone who has nothing.She recalled living in Boston where she joined fellow church members in taking food and clothing to the homeless. Nights were bitterly cold. Sometimes you couldnt find all the regulars who came out, and we prayed that they were safe. But in our hearts, we knew that something probably had happened to them. The street people there, she said, resisted going to shelters because they had to sleep away from their belongings. Anything they owned would always be stolen and it WAS all they owned, More said.The volunteer acknowledged that many cant grasp how people wind up homeless. It comes in tormenting steps loss of a job, bills piling up, loss of apartment or home, separation from family. With no address, they cant get a job, she said. When you have nothing, you cant go for interviews because all you own in a T-shirt, a pair of jeans and a pair of sandals. In short order, the new homeless get down on themselves like this is what they deserve, More said. The pattern was marvelously laid out in the recent film, Pursuit of Happiness, starring Will Smith, she said.More noted that as she and other volunteers finished their last outing with Church on the Street, its administrator appealed to Red Mountain Christian Center to help come up with 300 to 400 meals for a Thanksgiving dinner on Nov. 17. We were honored for them to ask us, and, of course, we said, Absolutely!But how would we do this? More wonders. With the help of others, she concluded. We are looking for sponsors or contributors to help with the food, either monetary or donations of food. The church volunteer can be reached at debimore1@yahoo.com or (480) 205-2513.

Writers, like electricians, hotel linen handlers and cab drivers, have their rules of the trade. All who write for the media must follow various stylebooks that lay down the rules on word usage, punctuation and things to avoid. Without following them and ensuring uniformity, writers would be inconsistent in words like theater and theatre or historical and historic, and there IS a difference. Without writers being consistent, boneheaded mistakes can be made that could be regarded as insensitive. We must use Indian and not Native American, for example. Avoid calling homosexuality an alternative lifestyle. And there is no dot in Dr Pepper.As a longtime member of the Religion Newswriters Association, I look forward to the updated stylebook for our field. Just out is Reporting on Religion 2: A Stylebook on Journalisms Best Beat. In 132 pages, it concisely covers the religious landscape that is full of landmines and terms that can be improperly used. Much, of course, is technical explanations of religious terminology. So what are acts of God? The book says its an event caused exclusively by forces of nature that could not have been foreseen or prevented.A term like the Moral Majority should no longer be used. The group, whose leaders believed it represented the major of Americans beliefs, morphed in 2004 into the Moral Majority Coalition. Be careful with the term The Reverend, the book warns. It is a form of address given to many, but not all, ordained Christian and Buddhist clergy. Do not use this honorific form unless you are sure that the particular denomination accepts its use. I have gotten an earful from many conservative Christian pastors who say God himself is the only one worthy to be so honored as Reverend. With that in mind, Most Muslim clergymen use the title sheik in the same way a Christian cleric uses the Rev.It calls for understanding that the swastika is not just a hated Nazi symbol. It is one of the most popular symbols for Hindus, Jains and Buddhists. The swastika used by the Nazis was a perverted version of the ancient Hindu swastika, the stylebook explains.The mere term religion has nuances to be observed. While it generally refers to religious practice, it is a mistake to say that Catholics and Baptists, for example, belong to different religions. Instead, they belong to different Christian traditions. Reform, Orthodox and Conservative Jews, in the same way, belong to different traditions. Actually, the mistake is rarely made that they belong to different religions. The label Protestant is not applied to Christian Scientists, Jehovahs Witnesses or Mormons is another instruction. What about that term priesthood of all believers? Who is in that priesthood, and are they priests? The RNA stylebook defines it as a Christian doctrine that believers have direct access to God and do not need professional priests to act as intermediaries. So that term stands in direct contrast to the role of priests in the Roman Catholic and Orthodox traditions, and it represents one of the key demarcations between the major branches of Christianity.We are carefully schooled for writing about the abortion debate. Pro-abortion and pro-life are terms not to be used. Likewise, pro-choice is not advised. Journalists should instead use a description of peoples views, such as opposed to abortion or against abortion rights and pro-abortion rights, the booklet said.So when it is OK to call someone a pagan? The guide says its generally, a person who does not acknowledge the God of Judaism, Christianity or Islam and who is a worshiper of the polytheistic religion. In addition, The modern religious movement known as neo-paganism has adopted the name as a badge of faith. There are fascinating definitions of the controversial Catholic organization, Opus Dei, given prominence in the The Da Vinci Code.Never use the term Old Testament in the context of a Jewish story. Jews do not use this term, and many consider it disrespectful because it implies that the Hebrew Bible is old and unnecessary compared with the Christian Scriptures, the book said. Thus, writers should term it the Hebrew Scriptures or Hebrew Bible.Except if it is part of a quotation, the term Moonie is derogatory in reference to a member of the Unification Church. Quran is the preferred spelling for the Islamic book previously identified as the Koran. A true megachurch has a weekly sustained attendance of 2,000 or more. Jews for Jesus and Messianic Jews should never be grouped together with mainstream Jews in stories or listings.It is all strong advice and rich materials for this journalism specialty, religion writing. And it underscores the wide diversity of faiths and, importantly, the language and terms the faith traditions prefer the media to use. Thats only fair.

Prisoners are a captive audience with strict limits on information they may have access to. Historically, the shelves of religious books in prisons have been regarded as just the right stuff to tame their souls.But controversy is brewing over the Bureau of Prisons order to chaplains to do a major purge of religious materials in libraries that inmates may use. Its to ensure there is nothing that can be used to give them skills for violence or terrorism or spur them to hateful thoughts. Laurie Goodstein of the New York Times raised attention to the quiet process in a Sept. 10 article. Being removed are books, tapes, CDs and videos that have been on shelves for decades. Whats allowed are materials that are on a selected and acceptable list. The materials are being trashed because they are not on that list of approved and safe materials. Some prisons religious offerings, as a result, are pretty slim. A Christian and an Orthodox Jew were so upset by what was done to the literature at a federal prison camp in upstate New York that they filed a class-action lawsuit, accusing the Bureau of Prisons of violating their rights to the free exercise of religion. Chaplains and others working with prisoners are saying this strategy runs counter to historic arguments that religion-based approaches to confronting social problems aid rehabilitation. But a bureau spokeswoman, Traci Billingsley, said the agency was responding to a 2004 report of the Office of the Inspector General in the Justice Department on steps prisons should take, in wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks to avoid becoming recruiting grounds for militant Islamic and other religious groups, Goodstein wrote. The effort is called the Standardized Chapel Library Project, to make sure there is no access to whatever might discriminate, disparage, advocate violence or radicalize. Billingley said the bureau pushed for consistency of information for all religious groups to assure reliable teachings as determined by reliable subject experts." As one might expect in any step for uniformity, the good and very good go out with any bad. The Times quoted Mark Early, president of Prison Fellowship, Theres no need to get rid of literally hundreds of thousands of books that are fine simply because you have a problem with an isolated book or piece of literature that presents extremism. Bureaucrats lack time or patients to read through all the shelved religious books in pursuit of any troubling passages, so they opt to just allow pre-approved books. Experts are said to have produced a list of UP TO 150 book tittles and 150 multimedia resources for each of 20 religions or religious categories.Yet, religious publishing is, perhaps, the largest and most diverse genre. But there is a promise, Billingsley said, to start expanding the offerings in October. Trouble is the bureau has not provided any money to prisons to buy the books on the lists, so in some prisons, after the shelves were cleared of books not on the lists, few items remained.One chaplain was dismayed that things inmates have been studying and reading for 20 years and drawing strength from are gone because they didnt make the list. Other chaplains say what being is brought into libraries are things they are not familiar with or would never have chosen. Eighty of 120 titles of books in Judaism come from the same Orthodox Jewish publishing house. Christians complained of a bias toward evangelical popularism and Calvinism and little from early church fathers, liberal theologians and major Protestant denominations.An Orthodox Jewish group officer, David Zwiebel, told how three-fourths of Jewish books is one prison library were gone and the collection was decimated. Since when does the government, even with the assistance of chaplains, decide which are the most basic books in terms of religious study and practice? Zwiebel asked.The Sojourners organization, led by Jim Wallis, had this to say, The idea of government bureaucrats drafting a list of approved books on religion seems like something out of Soviet-era Russia, not the United States of America, where freedom of religion even for those behind prison walls is something we treasure.But the government keeps ever busy finding ways for America to be afraid in wake of 9/11, then, of course, moves forward to make us safe. Never mind if any freedoms are lost along the way.

How can the Catholic Diocese of Phoenix possibly mark the 25th anniversary in 2012 of Pope John Paul IIs historic visit to the Valley in 1987? How can it outdo what it did Saturday night for the 20th anniversary celebration at the new Phoenix Convention Center?The classy event, on the theme, An Encounter with Christ, drew almost 1,000 people, first for a Mass with standing-room-only at St. Marys Basilica, then with the three-hour center in the third-floor ballroom of the center. The event conjured memories of the Holy Fathers 24 hours in the Valley and showcased his life and 26-year papacy. For those of us who were around for the popes visit to Phoenix and Tempe Sept. 14-15, 1987, it was a homecoming event. There they were: The then-Bishop Thomas OBrien who years before had begun persevering for a Phoenix stop on any U.S. tour by the pope; Monsignor John McMahon, the clergyman who oversaw the day-to-day logistics of several dozen committees and what would be about 6,000 volunteers; Harvey Newquist, the layman who represented Phoenix on the national team of city visit coordinators; and Emmett White, now wheelchair-bound, the Gila River Indian Community holy man, who had blessed the pope at Veterans Memorial Coliseum with smoke and feather.Bishop Thomas Olmsted delivered a powerful reflection on the pope for whom he worked for nearly a decade while in Rome in the 1970s and 1980s. He told how after the pope was wounded by a would-be assassin in 1981, Olmsted was assigned to minister to two American women who had to be treated for wounds from the same fusillade of bullets in St. Peters Square. And the bishop told how his doctor was also the cardiologist who treated the pope a female doctor who retained and displayed the blood-stained garments of the pope as evidence of a man spared by God for 23 more years of life on earth.I was privileged to sit at a table with the emcee for the night, Joe Garagiola Sr., the ageless, funnyman baseball announcer, ex-Today Show personality and much more. He was surrounded by six nuns from St. Peters Indian Mission on the Gila Indian Reservation, where they teach at the Catholic school. Called the Awesome Fox on the reservation, Garagiola has worked tirelessly to bring resources to that school, an effort that earned him the coveted Hon Kachina Award several years ago. He used his wit to tell Catholic boyhood stories while growing up in St. Louis.The crowd was deeply moved by a presentation by Laurie Walsh. She and her husband had moved from Montana to the Valley in August 1987, a month before the papal visit. She told how she had come from a family where alcoholism was common and had herself been a troubled, heavy drinker for 15 years. Two of her several car accidents were fairly serious, but only she was injured. Age 30 when she moved to Arizona, Walsh had held 36 jobs while an alcoholic. She said she couldnt find anything that would get her to quit drinking.Once in Arizona, she joined St. Maria Gorettis Parish in Scottsdale. We heard the pope was coming to town, she said. We decided we wanted to see him because it was such a big event. With their names on the bottom of a list, they were resigned to watch the Papal Mass at Sun Devil Stadium the night of Sept. 14 on television. But a few days before the visit, the parish office informed them they had tickets. When the Walshes arrived that night at the stadium, we walked in and found ourselves escorted to the front, under the papal cross behind the wheel chairs. That itself, she said, was a miracle. When the pope came down to bless the people in the wheel chairs, we were right behind them and we felt the blessing! Walsh said. It seemed like the light softened, and everything slowed into slow motion at that moment when he was blessing everyone, she said. Even her husband experienced it, Walsh said.She likened the experience to walking through a forest and entering a clearing to behold a fawn lying in the sunlight. She realized instantly that the moment was precious and had never experienced anything like that before.The most amazing thing happened to me, Walsh said. From that day forward, up to the present day, I have never found it necessary to take another drink of alcohol. The urge left me completely that night, and the date of my sobriety is 9-14-1987.So she said she, too, was celebrating a 20th anniversary milestone. She immediately joined Alcoholics Anonymous. That led her to get his masters degree and also to become a licensed substance abuse counselor. Walsh also has now held the same job for 17 years. I really do understand the meaning of serenity. It is what God grants us, she said. I had never been able to fully express what had happened that changed my life in that blessing by the pope, she said. Walsh said her husband, who was Lutheran at the time, decided that night that he needed to become a Catholic, which he did. He went through the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults classes and became a member. Today he belongs to the Catholic mens organization, the Knights of Columbus. Today Walsh shares her story to others. I dont charge for my services, but I do accept all of the blessings that come to me when I share my recovery with people.It was a remarkable night. Congratulations to Anne and John Wuycheck for co-chairing and organizing the evening of remembrance of the rare visit of the Vicar of Christ.BEYOND BELIEF NOTE: At midday Sunday, this blog registered its 100,000th hit by readers. Since I began writing it in April 2006, This marks my 257th commentary for the Beyond Belief blog. Thanks, readers, for checking in and for sharing your comments and insights.

Most of us who, from the beginning, have opposed the war in Iraq have been confounded by the near silence of the American faith communities that make peace-making so much of their talk.Im convinced the administration has masterfully intertwined supporting the troops and supporting the war, and the public has been duped, even made to feel guilty that somehow opposing the U.S. occupation is a slap in the face of the men and women sent there in the hopeless, deadly task. As a Vietnam-era U.S. Army veteran, trained for infantry but assigned to a typewriter and an infantry training company desk job, I know GIs must follow orders ugly and ill-conceived as they can be. Yet, you never found this Army sergeant cursing the war protesters on college campuses and outside the White House from 1969 to 1971 while I was typing paperwork that helped move troops to Vietnam and that folly. I had to follow orders, but discreetly voiced my sheer contempt for the Johnson-Nixon war. Critics of that similarly mindless war were vindicated by history.The American public is free of constraints put on those in uniform, and, for now, is obliged to help save the butts of our soldiers by smart and aggressive pressure on politicians with some power to change policies and funding for war. Heres a salute to what Pax Christi, a Roman Catholic organization that embraces the peace of Christ and teachings for nonviolence.From 7 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Monday, members of Pax Christi and other advocates for the end to the war will meet for a vigil on the lawn of the Pastoral Center of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Phoenix, 400 E. Monroe St. Their activity is simple, said Tom Donovan of Pax Chisti: to pray for an end to the war in Iraq.Pax Christi USA, along with other Catholic groups, is dedicated to ending the war in Iraq, he said, and the vigil is to mobilized Catholics and other to become active voices to end it.When Catholics for the End to War in Iraq (www.catholicsforanend.org), it explained its goals: encourage our leaders to bring together Iraqs warring factions in a multi-party conference that involves neighboring countries in the peace process, provide funding and reconstruction support for Iraq, and begin an end to U.S. military operations and withdrawal of combat troops. The web site provide an opportunity to add ones name to a petition.Pax Christi USA has about 50,000 members. About 50 people are active members in the three Valley chapters, including Pas Christi-Tempe at the ASU Newman Center; Pax Christi-Phoenix at the Franciscan Renewal Center in Scottsdale; and another in Glendale. Members strive to create a world that reflects the Peace of Christ by exploring, articulating and witnessing to the call of Christian non-violence. The groups Q&A sheet for the public explains how it would have responded to 9/11 and the war on terrorism. It would respond with forgiveness and reconciliation and employ aggressive peace-making efforts in the tradition and Martin Luther King Jr. and other who taught the world about nonviolence.Pax Christi borrows from Jesuit priest John Dear: We have to find new, non-violent, nonmilitary solutions to the worlds problems. He lamented that were teaching people around the world to hate us. Were asking for more September 11ths.Pope John Paul II, who was in our Valley 20 years ago today, put it this way in a talk in 2003: War is not always inevitable. It is always a defeat for humanity.

Because of volunteer chores I do Sunday mornings at my church, I almost always am the first one on campus. The thought goes through my mind, as I push down my pickups door button: It seems strange to be locking the door of my vehicle outside my church, of all places. Nobody in my congregation is going to pilfer it.But I lock the door out of common sense. A single vehicle in a large parking lot could be easy work with no one in sight.Tribune writer Mike Sakals article today, Churchgoers battle car break-in spree, told of the proliferation of thefts from vehicles in the parking lots outside of Scottsdale houses of worship. The thefts and break-ins have gone up three times since earlier in the year. Since May 14, there were 31 such break-ins reported compared to 11 from Jan. 1 to May 13.Thieves had not been discriminating as to what faiths to victimize. Hit have been campus parking lots of Catholics, Jehovahs Witnesses, Lutheran, Mormon and non-denominational faiths. Loss is almost $30,000, including damage to vehicles to get inside. Actual property taken was estimated at almost $8,000. They typically go through the passenger-side windows to get in and do it during worship prime times: 10 a.m. to noon. Thieves probably take advantage of a number of things. First, there is a casualness about parking outside a place of worship because its regarded as a safe haven, that all who enter the campus will have an honest heart and nothing would happen there. Sunday mornings are scramble time for families. Just getting the family up, fed, cleaned up, dressed and into the car and to church on time is an accomplishment. Typically, they are headed elsewhere after church and leave things behind in the car, sometimes purses, bags and valuable electronics. And its not cool to drag those trappings into church with them to guarantee their security. Moreover, some will not bother to lock doors because they are just at church. Many families split up and come in several cars because of their schedules, and some drivers dont have a vigilant mom to make sure all the doors are locked. Thieves have to figure that if church starts at 10 a.m., the last pack of late-comers will be in the church door by 10:15 a.m., and the parking lot will be dead of any activity for 45 minutes or so. Thats ample time to try car doors to find those unlocked, to look for cars with all the goodies on display in front and back seats, and to quickly break windows to make their hauls. Rows of cars offer good hiding from view. Larger churches have acres of cars, with those parked well away from buildings the easiest targets because of sound and sight limits.Try to find a volunteer wholl give up attending worship services to monitor a parking lot on a hot morning on a reasonably remote chance thieves will be out to get that churchs cars. Obviously, common sense is the best guide. Clear the interior of your vehicle of anything that would-be thieves would find alluring. Put things into the trunk, take them with you or leave them home. Make the congregation aware of parking lot break-ins in the greater community and be vigilant for strangers showing up and, perhaps, hanging out until the coast is clear. Encourage teens who drive to church to lock up their cars and get all their electronic toys out of view. Parking lot lighting should be a priority, as well, to minimize night car break-ins when there are many meetings, choir practices and other activities going on. Trust is a great thing, but even folks on a church campus must be security-minded. There is a contemporary him that goes: "His eye is on the sparrow and I know he watches me." Too bad, such thieves don’t take that to heart.

Theres a whole lot of shaking going on. Starting with a wagging of a finger in disapproval.TV stations are being inundated with calls and e-mails protesting the Patty Melt and Flat Buns commercials of Hardees and Carls Jr. restaurants. The 30-minute spots features a curvy, slim, blonde school teacher walking provocatively around her classroom in a gray suit, talking about the earth not being flat, while male students are admiring her physique. Then suddenly, she pulls a pencil out of her rolled-up hair, and it falls to her shoulders. She then goes into a provocative dance on top of the desk. Two of the students go into bad rap music, I like them really hot. I like them really flat I like flat buns. At one point, the teacher is on her back on top of the desk, elevating her hips in rhythm to the music. She slides her hands across her fanny, as well. The boys are immediately at a chalkboard with a womans body outlined, then one erases the rounded portion of her buttocks to make them flat. The commercial winds up the burger dropping to a surface and the words: The Patty Melt on flat buns — only at Carls Jr. A Queen Creek reader shared an e-mail sent, in protest, to TV stations, I am highly offended by the sexual content in the latest Hardees/Carl’s Jr. television commercials In my opinion, they violate local community standards. Because you are licensed to serve the public interest in our community, I request that you refuse to air these ads. If you are already airing them, I ask you to stop.Don Wildmons American Family Association, based in Mississippi, is leading the charge against the CKE Restaurants, based in Carpentaria, Calif. Hardees and Carl’s Jr. have a solid history of completely ignoring consumer complaints, the AFA web site states, noting that the company has previously used Playboy founder Hugh Hefner and actress Paris Hilton to sell burgers.The president of the Tennessee Education Association told the company of his disappointment. At this very moment, there are female teachers in high school classrooms with 30-plus students who are working hard to teach our children so that they can compete in todays world, said Earl Wiman. It is unbelievably demeaning to every one of them to promote a television advertisement showing a young teacher on top of her desk while boys in the class rap about her body in order to sell hamburgers. He said it certainly doesnt reinforce good classroom behavior, nor an orderly environment for leaning.If you dare, you can view the commercial on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HooS1rtXDGk&mode=related&search=That outrage comes at the same time that a dozen returned missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are showing off the top half of their bodies for an edgy beefcake 2008 Men on a Mission calendar It is being dubbed Mormons Exposed. http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/story/97145One of them, Matthew Webster, 22, is a graduate of Mountain View High School in Mesa and served his mission in Japan. Photos of their pecs and muscles are tame, but it is only controversial and provocative because the young men are otherwise wholesome, clean-cut they-wouldnt-do-that-would-they? Mormon chaps. The Las Vegas company, which is selling the calendars online for $14.95, is paying the guys $500, with other cash for doing interviews or appearances. The calendar project and surrounding buzz serves as a platform to encourage many different groups of people to look beyond the stereotypes of race, religion or political affiliation to achieve a greater understanding of one another, the sellers web site (mormonsexposed.com) says. It has a disclaimer that the venture is neither affiliated with the Mormon Church nor endorsed by it. Church officials predictably have dismissed the calendar project as a non-story. Many are, no doubt, shaking their heads at the latest uncomfortable thing to come their way.A whole host of films and spoofs have been done over the years at the expense of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, TV series like HBOs Big Love and films like Mobsters and Mormons Orgazmo, and The Other Side of Heaven. Mormon filmmakers have made a raft of films that are successful, in great part, because they can exploit the distinct folkways of church members. No doubt part of it stems from a notion that the church seems to have set itself up as stainless and modest to a fault, thus making it an easier target.Meanwhile, the calendar peddlers are striving to gain some respectability by giving some of the profits to charities like Salvation Army, Habitat for Humanity and the American Red Cross. You can predict the next gimmick will be a calendar of returned women church missionaries in bikinis. The women probably have already been recruited.

On my way to work today, I looked to my right to an office parking lot near Price and Broadway roads in Tempe. I remembered back to the morning of Sept. 11, 2001. While the second of Twin Towers in New York City was being speared by an airliner, I was helping a church friend remove the flat tire from his car in that lot, and I took him to a repair shop to get it fixed. It seemed, at the time, a bit of a inconveniece to help him, given this newsman’s need to get to work that fateful day.He and his son had walked through the darkness to our house about midnight after the flat, and I then drove them to their Tempe home with a promise to help Mark get it fixed the next day. Next morning as all the awful things were happening, I was obligated to get Mark back on the road and to work. And to then get myself to the Tribune where everybody was thrown into the biggest story so far in the 21st century for America. Today, I was visited by Linda Allen, the Angel Lady from Tempe. Last November, we published a feature I wrote about her adventure with angels and her work publishing childrens activity books, including one called Your Dream Angel.Allen, who also writes under a pen name, Lela Gabrielle, remembers the national convulsions of Sept. 11. She woke up on Sept. 12 and wrote a poem that flowed from her soul. It was a mixture of love, joy and hope, she said. Allen said she wanted all people to begin forgiving one another to hasten a healing. She yearns for that important effort to continue.She once sent the poem to Oprah Winfrey, and she has it affixed to her refrigerator door. I read it a lot, she said. Allen says the words hold up well six years later. Here is her poem: May The Healing BeginMay each and every soul in the universe be blessed with tranquilityMay we experience the beauty and perfection of our onenessMay our brilliant lights guide us into a peaceful paradiseMay we remember our childlike innocence and embrace itMay we always know we are never aloneMay we be in constant gratitude of all that we are and all that we haveMay we sincerely forgive ourselves and everyoneMay love overflow with LOVE into the love of others. — Lela Gabrielle 9/11 Prayer

Political pundits say President Bush seems resigned to the fact that the world, in this generation, will not recognize the important mark he is making on civilizations survival by his wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to confront terrorism. Determined and resolute, he apparently believes future generations and their historians will vindicate him and elevate him from the cellar of presidential ignominy.That attitude is not original. In fact, it is the basis for more than a few human movements that write off current generations but steadfastly lay the groundwork for a time when bigots and the unenlightened will be in their graves and out of the way as obstructionists.Of course, the cemeteries are full of idealists, activists, revolutionaries and people of courage who tried their hardest to bring about change, but ended up leaving their unfinished business for future generations.Many of us wont see the end to discrimination against women, gays, racial minorities, the aging, disabled and poor. But we watch history, and we see encouraging patterns that there is no stopping noble causes to eventually plow past tyranny, bigotry and powerful obstacles. I was heartened to read the words of Rosemary Ruether, the Carpenter professor of feminist theology at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, Calif. She recently wrote of Creativity at the Grass Roots: Women-Church Convergence models religious community. When Episcopal women were first ordained as clergy in 1974, it prompted Catholics to organized the first Womens Ordination Conference in Detroit the next year. Its goals would be both the ordination of women and the renewal of priestly ministry, defined as a more egalitarian and communal model of ministry. By the time a third conference was held in 1983 in Detroit, the Women-Church Convergence movement was born, calling for men and women to gather in communities for liturgy, study, reflection and social work in which all members participate as equals, with no separation of an ordained leader from the other members. A vast variety of Catholic feminist ministries and liturgical gatherings developed over the next 25 years, some of them connected to each other through the network called Women-Church Convergence, Ruether said. The question of womens ordination versus the community as a whole as celebrants of the Eucharist has reappeared in new form in Catholic feminist circles with the development of the Roman Catholic Womenpriest movement, she said. Seven Catholic priests were ordained in 2002 in Austria, and it has spread to other part of Europe, Canada and the United States, (www.romancatholicwomenpriests.org) and there are now 18 female priests. Some 250 people participated in a national meeting in mid-August in Chicago. Half were new to the movement and included a group of about 40 members of the Young Feminist Network, or Catholic women in their 20s and 30s who want the convergence to be attentive to issues facing younger women. Clearly, if one wants to know what is going on among Catholics, listening to the Vatican and national episcopacies is a small part of the story, said Ruether, a prolific writer whose first book in 1967 was titled The Church Against Itself. One needs to look at the grass roots, she said.There is astonishing creativity at the grass roots, she said. Indeed, the more the hierarchy of the Catholic Church appears in stasis or backward retreat, the more freewheeling the creative initiatives that pop up on the ground, she asserts.