http://www.kentucky.com/158/index.xml News, sports, and entertainment from Kentucky.com en-us Copyright 2008 Kentucky.com Faith and Values 60 Wed, 03 Dec 2008 22:31:29 EST http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss McClatchy Interactive's Workbench webmaster@kentucky.com http://www.kentucky.com/971/story/537807.html http://www.kentucky.com/971/story/537807.html Sat, 27 Sep 2008 10:01 EDT
When describing my religious beliefs, I usually call myself an evangelical and a Pentecostal. But these terms, at least when appropriated by yours truly, tend to provoke consternation.

My fellow evangelicals and Pentecostals, having read my columns, often assume I'm a heretic. Those willing to admit I could, in theory, be one of Jesus' sheep, think I'm a black sheep. They hesitate to claim me.

And people of other or no religious leanings shake their heads, too.

"But you're so ... so ... reasonable," they say. "You can't be one of " . envision a pinching of the nostrils . "'those' people." ]]> http://www.kentucky.com/971/story/567773.html http://www.kentucky.com/971/story/567773.html Sat, 25 Oct 2008 08:44 EDT
Because I'm in my car a lot, and because I can't stomach much of what's currently on the radio, I buy more than my share of audio books.

They're usually expensive, so I tend to shop for bargains.

Last week, I picked up a cheap copy of Studs Terkel's Voices of Our Time , an anthology of interviews from his Peabody Award-winning radio show on Chicago's WFMT. The four dozen excerpts span the 1950s to the 1980s.

What I rediscovered from the first of the six CDs made me feel better, in retrospect, about who and where we Americans are today. ]]> http://www.kentucky.com/971/story/552238.html http://www.kentucky.com/971/story/552238.html Sat, 11 Oct 2008 09:19 EDT
We're in the midst of the worst economic meltdown since the 1930s.

For weeks, I've been reading everything I can find on the subject, while simultaneously watching my IRA take daily swan dives off the Brooklyn Bridge.

In all my scouring of newspapers, magazines and online financial sites, I haven't found anyone who's saying what seems to me obvious: this debacle is a spiritual issue.

Whether our current situation turns out to be a recession, a depression or a worldwide collapse, it's largely the result of our political and economic leaders having distorted for years a basic biblical, Christian and just plain commonsensical premise. ]]> http://www.kentucky.com/158/story/609352.html http://www.kentucky.com/158/story/609352.html Sat, 29 Nov 2008 11:59 EST
Why do recording artists make new Christmas albums?

Seriously, three-quarters of them are usually full of songs that have been recorded a quarter of a million times already, and the rest are attempts at new seasonal tunes that are in reality what is known as filler.

So, what does a current recording artist bring to the table that's any better than what Nat King Cole or Bing Crosby did decades ago?

Well, first off, like the rest of us, pop stars like to sing Christmas songs. So, if you can put your own twist on O Holy Night, and your fans will probably buy it, why not? ]]> http://www.kentucky.com/158/story/609340.html http://www.kentucky.com/158/story/609340.html Sat, 29 Nov 2008 02:47 EST
You better watch out. There is a new combatant in the Christmas wars.

Ads proclaiming, "Why believe in a god? Just be good for goodness' sake," will appear on Washington, D.C., through December, part of a $40,000 holiday campaign by The American Humanist Association.

In lifting lyrics from Santa Claus is Coming to Town, the Washington-based group is wading into what has become a perennial debate over commercialism, religion in the public square and the meaning of Christmas.

"We are trying to reach our audience, and sometimes in order to reach an audience, everybody has to hear you," said Fred Edwords, spokesman for the humanist group. "Our reason for doing it during the holidays is there are an awful lot of agnostics, atheists and other types of non-theists who feel a little alone during the holidays because of its association with traditional religion." ]]> http://www.kentucky.com/158/story/609337.html http://www.kentucky.com/158/story/609337.html Sat, 29 Nov 2008 02:47 EST
HACKENSACK, N.J. . In a turbulent economy, the price tag of an elite education might be too steep for families suffering financial distress, some private schools are learning.

Amid the stock market meltdown, a growing number of private schools are reporting declining enrollments, increasing demand for financial aid and more students leaving for public schools.

The economic crisis is making its presence felt in the hallways of schools such as Paramus (N.J.) Catholic High School, where more than a dozen students did not return this year because their families could not scrape together the $7,200 tuition.

"Those families hoped they'd be in a better financial situation," said school President James Vail. "We also had three students leave, since school started, who indicated it was because of a parent losing their job." ]]> http://www.kentucky.com/158/story/609338.html http://www.kentucky.com/158/story/609338.html Sat, 29 Nov 2008 02:47 EST
SATURDAY

Bethlehem Mall. Noon; also 12:30 p.m. Sunday. North Middletown Christian Church, Thatcher's Mill Rd., North Middletown. Free. (859) 362-4467.

High School Youth Movie Night. 5 p.m. Versailles Presbyterian Church, 130 N. Main St., Versailles. (859) 873-3491. www.vpc1.org.

Sunday ]]> http://www.kentucky.com/158/story/606620.html http://www.kentucky.com/158/story/606620.html Sat, 29 Nov 2008 10:21 EST
SANDENIA, Guinea . After a year of sitting in front of a computer eight hours a day, browsing patents at a mind-numbing rate of a few thousand an hour, enough was enough. It was time for a change.

What kind of change, though? I wanted something where I'd be outside more, something where there'd be a sense of adventure. I wanted to go somewhere new, see new cultures and learn new languages. More than anything, I wanted to help people. The Peace Corps fit the bill.

So I filled out the application, had the interview, passed the medical screenings, and a year later found myself standing in west Africa's intense July heat on the tarmac of the Conakry airport in Guinea, ready for whatever the country wanted to throw at me . or so I thought.

In anticipation of my service as a volunteer in Guinea, a lot of time was spent contemplating the difficulties of life in a mud hut, survival without electricity and running water. As it turns out, life in a mud hut is, in fact, pretty great, and who needs electricity? Writing by candlelight is so much cooler. Besides, there are other, deeper issues with which I struggle while making my life in the bush. ]]> http://www.kentucky.com/158/story/604893.html http://www.kentucky.com/158/story/604893.html Tue, 25 Nov 2008 02:39 EST
LOUISVILLE . A lawsuit can continue against the Vatican alleging that top church officials should have warned the public of sexual abuse of children by priests in the Archdiocese of Louisville, a federal appeals court ruled Monday.

The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals gave the go-ahead for the lawsuit filed by three men who claim priests abused them as children. They allege the Vatican orchestrated a decades-long coverup.

Louisville attorney William McMurry is seeking class-action status, saying there are thousands of victims nationally. He is seeking unspecified damages from the Vatican.

Jeffrey Lena, a Berkeley, Calif.-based attorney for the Vatican, said the appeals court's decision narrows the plaintiffs' case because the court upheld a judge's decision to dismiss claims that the Holy See was negligent in failing to provide safe care to the children entrusted to the clergy, along with claims of deceit and misrepresentation by the Vatican. ]]> http://www.kentucky.com/158/story/603621.html http://www.kentucky.com/158/story/603621.html Mon, 24 Nov 2008 02:44 EST
Earlier this month, a guest took the pulpit at Open Bible Fellowship in Morrison, Ill., a 350-member church surrounded by cornfields. The speaker was an insurance salesman from Colorado named Ted Haggard.

The former superstar pastor, disgraced two years ago in a sex-and-drugs scandal, had returned . this time as a Christian businessman preaching a message that was equal parts contrition and defiance. Haggard linked his fall to being molested in second grade, and he apologized again.

His two sermons were posted, fleetingly, on Haggard's Web site under one word: "Alive!"

Although his exact plans remain unclear, Haggard is unmistakably making himself a public figure again, nine months after his former church said he walked away from a process meant to restore him. ]]> http://www.kentucky.com/158/story/601539.html http://www.kentucky.com/158/story/601539.html Sat, 22 Nov 2008 08:45 EST
What are you thankful for?

On Thanksgiving, millions of us sit shoulder to shoulder at the dinner table with friends and loved ones, casual acquaintances, even strangers.

Before we reach for the bread and butter, before passing the cranberry sauce or ladling the gravy, many of us will pause for a few words of blessing for the plenty that enriches our table and for that which has enriched our lives.

For some it's a rushed expression required by grandma before the eating commences. You may have heard it before, all in one breath: "Blessusolordforthesethygiftswhichweareabouttoreceivethroughthybountyolordamen." ]]> http://www.kentucky.com/158/story/601590.html http://www.kentucky.com/158/story/601590.html Sat, 22 Nov 2008 02:42 EST
COLUMBIA, S.C. . Bob Jones University has apologized for racist policies, including a onetime ban on interracial dating that wasn't lifted until eight years ago and its unwillingness to admit black students until 1971.

The private fundamentalist Christian school, founded in 1927, said its rules on race were shaped by culture instead of the Bible, according to a statement posted Thursday on its Web site.

The university in northwestern South Carolina, with about 5,000 students, didn't begin admitting black students until nearly 20 years after the U.S. Supreme Court's 1954 Brown v. Board of Education ruling found public segregated schools were unconstitutional.

"We failed to accurately represent the Lord and to fulfill the commandment to love others as ourselves. For these failures we are profoundly sorry. Though no known antagonism toward minorities or expressions of racism on a personal level have ever been tolerated on our campus, we allowed institutional policies to remain in place that were racially hurtful," the statement said. ]]> http://www.kentucky.com/158/story/601538.html http://www.kentucky.com/158/story/601538.html Sat, 22 Nov 2008 02:41 EST
DETROIT . A Bible in hand, the preacher paced before his flock to deliver a timely message: how to survive in tough economic times.

"We're in a famine," Pastor Ben Gibert proclaimed at Detroit World Outreach church in Redford Township, on a recent Wednesday night, drawing on an Old Testament verse from Ezekiel. "But ... God is going to honor the righteous people, and he's not going to allow them to go down with the land. So we don't have to ... cry and whine."

The idea that God rewards moral people with financial prosperity . dubbed the "prosperity gospel" by critics . has increasingly drawn large crowds to churches across the United States.

But can it resonate during an economic downturn? ]]> http://www.kentucky.com/158/story/614947.html http://www.kentucky.com/158/story/614947.html Wed, 03 Dec 2008 22:30 EST
David Brannen is thrilled at the forming of the new Anglican Communion in North America.

The rector of St. Andrews Anglican Church in Versailles said his church is part of a denomination that is forming the new communion.

St. Andrews was formed about three years ago and has about 250 members. It is under the authority of the Anglican Church of Uganda, which has split recently with other Anglican communions over homosexuality and other issues.

Brannen is a former priest in the Episcopal Church, the Anglican body in the United States with ties to the Church of England. ]]> http://www.kentucky.com/158/story/612255.html http://www.kentucky.com/158/story/612255.html Tue, 02 Dec 2008 09:46 EST
An atheists-rights group is suing the Kentucky Office of Homeland Security because state law requires the agency to stress "dependence on Almighty God as being vital to the security of the Commonwealth."

American Atheists of Parsippany, N.J., and 10 non-religious Kentuckians are the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, set to be filed Tuesday in Franklin Circuit Court.

Edwin Kagin, a Boone County lawyer and the national legal director of American Atheists , said he was appalled to read in the Herald-Leader last week that state law establishes praising God . and installing a plaque in God's honor . as the first duty of the Homeland Security Office.

The state and federal constitutions both prohibit government from getting involved in religion, Kagin said Monday. ]]> http://www.kentucky.com/158/story/609352.html http://www.kentucky.com/158/story/609352.html Sat, 29 Nov 2008 11:59 EST
Why do recording artists make new Christmas albums?

Seriously, three-quarters of them are usually full of songs that have been recorded a quarter of a million times already, and the rest are attempts at new seasonal tunes that are in reality what is known as filler.

So, what does a current recording artist bring to the table that's any better than what Nat King Cole or Bing Crosby did decades ago?

Well, first off, like the rest of us, pop stars like to sing Christmas songs. So, if you can put your own twist on O Holy Night, and your fans will probably buy it, why not? ]]> http://www.kentucky.com/158/story/609340.html http://www.kentucky.com/158/story/609340.html Sat, 29 Nov 2008 02:47 EST
You better watch out. There is a new combatant in the Christmas wars.

Ads proclaiming, "Why believe in a god? Just be good for goodness' sake," will appear on Washington, D.C., through December, part of a $40,000 holiday campaign by The American Humanist Association.

In lifting lyrics from Santa Claus is Coming to Town, the Washington-based group is wading into what has become a perennial debate over commercialism, religion in the public square and the meaning of Christmas.

"We are trying to reach our audience, and sometimes in order to reach an audience, everybody has to hear you," said Fred Edwords, spokesman for the humanist group. "Our reason for doing it during the holidays is there are an awful lot of agnostics, atheists and other types of non-theists who feel a little alone during the holidays because of its association with traditional religion." ]]> http://www.kentucky.com/158/story/609337.html http://www.kentucky.com/158/story/609337.html Sat, 29 Nov 2008 02:47 EST
HACKENSACK, N.J. . In a turbulent economy, the price tag of an elite education might be too steep for families suffering financial distress, some private schools are learning.

Amid the stock market meltdown, a growing number of private schools are reporting declining enrollments, increasing demand for financial aid and more students leaving for public schools.

The economic crisis is making its presence felt in the hallways of schools such as Paramus (N.J.) Catholic High School, where more than a dozen students did not return this year because their families could not scrape together the $7,200 tuition.

"Those families hoped they'd be in a better financial situation," said school President James Vail. "We also had three students leave, since school started, who indicated it was because of a parent losing their job." ]]> http://www.kentucky.com/158/story/609338.html http://www.kentucky.com/158/story/609338.html Sat, 29 Nov 2008 02:47 EST
SATURDAY

Bethlehem Mall. Noon; also 12:30 p.m. Sunday. North Middletown Christian Church, Thatcher's Mill Rd., North Middletown. Free. (859) 362-4467.

High School Youth Movie Night. 5 p.m. Versailles Presbyterian Church, 130 N. Main St., Versailles. (859) 873-3491. www.vpc1.org.

Sunday ]]> http://www.kentucky.com/158/story/606620.html http://www.kentucky.com/158/story/606620.html Sat, 29 Nov 2008 10:21 EST
SANDENIA, Guinea . After a year of sitting in front of a computer eight hours a day, browsing patents at a mind-numbing rate of a few thousand an hour, enough was enough. It was time for a change.

What kind of change, though? I wanted something where I'd be outside more, something where there'd be a sense of adventure. I wanted to go somewhere new, see new cultures and learn new languages. More than anything, I wanted to help people. The Peace Corps fit the bill.

So I filled out the application, had the interview, passed the medical screenings, and a year later found myself standing in west Africa's intense July heat on the tarmac of the Conakry airport in Guinea, ready for whatever the country wanted to throw at me . or so I thought.

In anticipation of my service as a volunteer in Guinea, a lot of time was spent contemplating the difficulties of life in a mud hut, survival without electricity and running water. As it turns out, life in a mud hut is, in fact, pretty great, and who needs electricity? Writing by candlelight is so much cooler. Besides, there are other, deeper issues with which I struggle while making my life in the bush. ]]> http://www.kentucky.com/158/story/604893.html http://www.kentucky.com/158/story/604893.html Tue, 25 Nov 2008 02:39 EST
LOUISVILLE . A lawsuit can continue against the Vatican alleging that top church officials should have warned the public of sexual abuse of children by priests in the Archdiocese of Louisville, a federal appeals court ruled Monday.

The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals gave the go-ahead for the lawsuit filed by three men who claim priests abused them as children. They allege the Vatican orchestrated a decades-long coverup.

Louisville attorney William McMurry is seeking class-action status, saying there are thousands of victims nationally. He is seeking unspecified damages from the Vatican.

Jeffrey Lena, a Berkeley, Calif.-based attorney for the Vatican, said the appeals court's decision narrows the plaintiffs' case because the court upheld a judge's decision to dismiss claims that the Holy See was negligent in failing to provide safe care to the children entrusted to the clergy, along with claims of deceit and misrepresentation by the Vatican. ]]> http://www.kentucky.com/158/story/603621.html http://www.kentucky.com/158/story/603621.html Mon, 24 Nov 2008 02:44 EST
Earlier this month, a guest took the pulpit at Open Bible Fellowship in Morrison, Ill., a 350-member church surrounded by cornfields. The speaker was an insurance salesman from Colorado named Ted Haggard.

The former superstar pastor, disgraced two years ago in a sex-and-drugs scandal, had returned . this time as a Christian businessman preaching a message that was equal parts contrition and defiance. Haggard linked his fall to being molested in second grade, and he apologized again.

His two sermons were posted, fleetingly, on Haggard's Web site under one word: "Alive!"

Although his exact plans remain unclear, Haggard is unmistakably making himself a public figure again, nine months after his former church said he walked away from a process meant to restore him. ]]> http://www.kentucky.com/158/story/601539.html http://www.kentucky.com/158/story/601539.html Sat, 22 Nov 2008 08:45 EST
What are you thankful for?

On Thanksgiving, millions of us sit shoulder to shoulder at the dinner table with friends and loved ones, casual acquaintances, even strangers.

Before we reach for the bread and butter, before passing the cranberry sauce or ladling the gravy, many of us will pause for a few words of blessing for the plenty that enriches our table and for that which has enriched our lives.

For some it's a rushed expression required by grandma before the eating commences. You may have heard it before, all in one breath: "Blessusolordforthesethygiftswhichweareabouttoreceivethroughthybountyolordamen." ]]> http://www.kentucky.com/158/story/601590.html http://www.kentucky.com/158/story/601590.html Sat, 22 Nov 2008 02:42 EST
COLUMBIA, S.C. . Bob Jones University has apologized for racist policies, including a onetime ban on interracial dating that wasn't lifted until eight years ago and its unwillingness to admit black students until 1971.

The private fundamentalist Christian school, founded in 1927, said its rules on race were shaped by culture instead of the Bible, according to a statement posted Thursday on its Web site.

The university in northwestern South Carolina, with about 5,000 students, didn't begin admitting black students until nearly 20 years after the U.S. Supreme Court's 1954 Brown v. Board of Education ruling found public segregated schools were unconstitutional.

"We failed to accurately represent the Lord and to fulfill the commandment to love others as ourselves. For these failures we are profoundly sorry. Though no known antagonism toward minorities or expressions of racism on a personal level have ever been tolerated on our campus, we allowed institutional policies to remain in place that were racially hurtful," the statement said. ]]> http://www.kentucky.com/971/story/601535.html http://www.kentucky.com/971/story/601535.html Sat, 22 Nov 2008 02:41 EST
I thank all of you who have e-mailed or sent cards to congratulate me on the birth of my granddaughter, Harper. She and her mom and dad are doing fine.

A lot of the folks who've written me are grandparents themselves. Many are under the impression (explicitly stated) that their grandbabies are the most beautiful kids on earth. They're mistaken, obviously.

But I appreciate how they could feel that way.

Since Nov. 3, I've discovered a previously untapped dimension of my personality. I can sit and hold Harper for an hour, even two hours, and never get bored. I just gaze at her and grin like a fool. ]]> http://www.kentucky.com/971/story/537807.html http://www.kentucky.com/971/story/537807.html Sat, 27 Sep 2008 10:01 EDT
When describing my religious beliefs, I usually call myself an evangelical and a Pentecostal. But these terms, at least when appropriated by yours truly, tend to provoke consternation.

My fellow evangelicals and Pentecostals, having read my columns, often assume I'm a heretic. Those willing to admit I could, in theory, be one of Jesus' sheep, think I'm a black sheep. They hesitate to claim me.

And people of other or no religious leanings shake their heads, too.

"But you're so ... so ... reasonable," they say. "You can't be one of " . envision a pinching of the nostrils . "'those' people." ]]> http://www.kentucky.com/971/story/567773.html http://www.kentucky.com/971/story/567773.html Sat, 25 Oct 2008 08:44 EDT
Because I'm in my car a lot, and because I can't stomach much of what's currently on the radio, I buy more than my share of audio books.

They're usually expensive, so I tend to shop for bargains.

Last week, I picked up a cheap copy of Studs Terkel's Voices of Our Time , an anthology of interviews from his Peabody Award-winning radio show on Chicago's WFMT. The four dozen excerpts span the 1950s to the 1980s.

What I rediscovered from the first of the six CDs made me feel better, in retrospect, about who and where we Americans are today. ]]> http://www.kentucky.com/971/story/552238.html http://www.kentucky.com/971/story/552238.html Sat, 11 Oct 2008 09:19 EDT
We're in the midst of the worst economic meltdown since the 1930s.

For weeks, I've been reading everything I can find on the subject, while simultaneously watching my IRA take daily swan dives off the Brooklyn Bridge.

In all my scouring of newspapers, magazines and online financial sites, I haven't found anyone who's saying what seems to me obvious: this debacle is a spiritual issue.

Whether our current situation turns out to be a recession, a depression or a worldwide collapse, it's largely the result of our political and economic leaders having distorted for years a basic biblical, Christian and just plain commonsensical premise. ]]> http://www.kentucky.com/505/story/614167.html http://www.kentucky.com/505/story/614167.html Wed, 03 Dec 2008 11:53 EST
A crowd of angry Muslims quickly gathered, threw stones at the building and burned banners that said, "No to the church." They tried to storm the gates, clashed with police and chanted, "The church has fallen, the priest is dead," according to witnesses.

In fact, no one died, but 13 people were reported injured. For Egyptians in general, the incident in the blue-collar district of Ain Shams served as a warning that Muslim-Christian clashes, largely confined to the south of the country in recent years, have seeped into the capital.

Tempers are flaring as Islamic conservatism gains ground and Christians grow increasingly resentful about discrimination by the Muslim majority. The Ain Shams incident highlights that even in Cairo - seen as more cosmopolitan in its sectarian relations than the rural south - suspicions run between the communities. Muslim and Christian neighbors also are competing over who can set up houses of worship and where.

"We don't want to hear their hymns and for sure, they don't want to hear our prayers," a Muslim woman who lives in the area said as she shopped at a dairy store.]]> http://www.kentucky.com/505/story/613944.html http://www.kentucky.com/505/story/613944.html Wed, 03 Dec 2008 08:12 EST
PRACTICE COMPASSION

Lama Chuck Stanford, Rime Buddhist Center . Monastery: Generally a skeptic is one who is doubtful about things or refuses to believe something until he or she is given proof. Most religions view skeptics as a bad thing - as one who is lacking faith.

However, Buddhism actually encourages skepticism. In one of the famous Buddhist sutras (teachings), the Buddha, after giving a teaching, concludes by saying: "Don't accept these teachings just because I say they are true. Don't accept them out of respect for me. But examine them like a goldsmith would examine gold, and only when you know they are true, or that there is some value to them, only then accept them."

Of course, it is usually more rewarding when a married couple can share their faith, but that isn't always possible. There have been many successful interfaith marriages. Examples include Albert Einstein, Carl Jung and Irving Berlin.]]> http://www.kentucky.com/505/story/614199.html http://www.kentucky.com/505/story/614199.html Wed, 03 Dec 2008 12:13 EST
"If you are one of the 54 percent of Catholics who voted for a pro-abortion candidate, you were clear on his position and you knew the gravity of the question, I urge you to go to confession before receiving communion. Don't risk losing your state of grace by receiving sacrilegiously," the Rev. Joseph Illo wrote in a Nov. 21 letter to 15,000 parishioners at St. Joseph's Catholic Church in Modesto.

He delivered a similar message during a Mass. Illo said in an interview he sent the letter because Catholic teaching requires that people go to confession when they commit a mortal sin.

The Most Rev. Stephen Blaire, bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Stockton, where the parish is situated, disagreed. He said Catholics did not need to confess if they voted for Obama after considering many issues. Confession would be necessary only if someone voted for a candidate specifically because of his or her support of abortion, Blaire said.

Illo clarified his position from the pulpit Sunday. He said if parishioners intentionally had supported any candidate who backs abortion rights - not just Obama - that stance "may" need confessing, the Modesto Bee reported.]]> http://www.kentucky.com/505/story/614134.html http://www.kentucky.com/505/story/614134.html Wed, 03 Dec 2008 21:22 EST
The announcement represents a new challenge to the already splintering, 77-million-member world Anglican fellowship and the authority of its spiritual leader, Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams.

The new Anglican Church in North America includes four breakaway Episcopal dioceses, dozens of individual parishes in the U.S. and Canada, and splinter groups that left the Anglican family years, or in one case, more than a century ago.

Its future status in the Anglican Communion is unclear.

It is unprecedented for an Anglican national province to be created where any other such national church already exists. But traditionalists say the new group is needed to represent the true historic tradition of Anglican Christianity.]]> http://www.kentucky.com/505/story/613224.html http://www.kentucky.com/505/story/613224.html Tue, 02 Dec 2008 16:52 EST
American Atheists of Parsippany, N.J., and 10 non-religious Kentuckians are the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, set to be filed Tuesday in Franklin Circuit Court.

Edwin Kagin, a Kentucky lawyer and the national legal director of American Atheists, said he was appalled to read in the Lexington Herald-Leader last week that state law establishes praising God - and installing a plaque in God's honor - as the first duty of the Homeland Security Office.

The state and federal constitutions both prohibit government from getting involved in religion, Kagin said Monday.

"This is one of the most outrageous things I've seen in 35 years of practicing law. It's breathtakingly unconstitutional," Kagin said.]]> http://www.kentucky.com/505/story/612965.html http://www.kentucky.com/505/story/612965.html Tue, 02 Dec 2008 11:51 EST
Seriously, three-quarters of them are usually full of songs that have been recorded a quarter of a million times already, and the rest are attempts at new seasonal tunes that are in reality what is known as filler.

So, what does a current recording artist bring to the table that's any better than what Nat King Cole or Bing Crosby did decades ago?

Well, first off, like the rest of us, pop stars like to sing Christmas songs. So, if you can put your own twist on "O Holy Night," and your fans will probably buy it, why not?

And new tunes sometimes take root, which comes to mind listening to Casting Crowns' take on Wayne Kirkpatrick's "God Is With Us." And new artists come with new points of view, be it the classical colors of the Annie Moses Band or Sara Groves' brand of Americana.]]> http://www.kentucky.com/505/story/612446.html http://www.kentucky.com/505/story/612446.html Mon, 01 Dec 2008 23:01 EST
The attention stems from a Nov. 21 letter from the church's pastor, the Rev. Joseph Illo, to his parishioners that referred to President-elect Barack Obama's stance on abortion.

Illo advised his members that if they were "one of the 54 percent of Catholics who voted for a pro-abortion candidate, you were clear on his position, and you knew the gravity of the question, I urge you to go to confession before receiving communion. Don't risk losing your state of grace by receiving sacrilegiously."

According to exit polls, 54 percent of Catholics nationwide voted Nov. 4 for Obama.

Illo's letter generated news coverage and reaction across the country over the weekend.]]> http://www.kentucky.com/505/story/611072.html http://www.kentucky.com/505/story/611072.html Sun, 30 Nov 2008 16:08 EST
The Rev. Joseph Illo took issue with Obama's pro-choice position in a Nov. 21 letter sent to 15,000 members of the St. Joseph's parish. "If ... you were clear on his position and you knew the gravity of the question, I urge you to go to confession before receiving communion," his letter said.

Rick Walsh said he was in full agreement with Illo's sending the letter. He said there were other issues at stake in the presidential election but "human life trumps anything beyond that."

Mary Frampton said, "there is no more serious moral issue than the killing of the unborn." She said she was 100 percent in support of Illo's position.

A number of people attending the evening mass at the church stopped to hug Illo outside the entrance. Illo was not scheduled to preside over the mass but said he was going to make a statement about his letter at services this morning.]]>