Week of January 26 – February 1
“The Christian Church overwhelmingly–there are exceptions–choose to call Muhammad a terrorist. They could call Jesus a terrorist too. I mean, he was pretty tough on money lenders a time or two.”
– Former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark
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Week of February 2 – 8
“He (Bennison) says just because there are millions of conservative Christians who rally around issues like homosexuality, that doesn’t mean they’re right. Adolf Hitler, he says, had many followers as well.”
– National Public Radio Transcript of interview with Charles E. Bennison,
Episcopal Bishop of the Diocese of Pennsylvania
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Week of February 9 -15
“The Zionist Jews are foreigners in this land. They have no right to live or settle in it. They should go somewhere else in the world to establish their false entity. With regard to Palestine and its beating heart Jerusalem, it was never in the hands of the Jews. It was and forever will remain Arab. Jeruslaem is an Arab city and the Jews must not settle in it, be masters over it or carry out any type of religious ritual or ceremony in it. They must not leave their homes. They have no right to live on land, [or in] cities or villages that are not theirs….”
– Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem Atallah Hanna
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Week of February 22 – March 1
An article in the February 22 issue of the Washington Post reports on an Episcopal church in San Francisco, CA that is under investigation for allegations that a church-affilliated group “condoned–if not promoted–illegal drug use at all-night parties modeled on raves.” Among other “progressive” changes implemented by the church–the church choir was directed to chant the Hindu mantra “Om” in place of the recitation of the Nicene Creed.
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Week of March 16 – 22
“We live in a ‘Me’ society. Hence it is logical that one promises to be faithful to oneself.”
– Dutch Student Jennifer Hoes. On May 28, Hoes will marry herself
in a private ceremony in Haarlem, Netherlands
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Week of March 23 – 29
“It’s interesting to see how far apart we are from some of the laity [on war with Iraq], but that’s not unlike the prophets and apostles of the Old and New Testaments who were rejected by their own people.”
– National Council of Churches General Secretary Robert Edgar
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Week of March 30 – April 5
“This is a faith-based war. The worst thing is faith-based religion.”
– Former Democratic Presidential Candidate Eugene McCarthy,
Criticizing the war in Iraq before a Presbyterian church in St. Paul, MN
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Week of April 6 – 13
“This is what causes fear – Jesus forgives sins. He claims the authority of God in doing so. His resurrection vindicates his claim. He acknowledges his own sin. He knows himself forgiven. His call is to preach repentance and forgiveness.”
– Rt. Rev. Charles E. Bennison, Bishop of Pennsylvania, in his “The Challenge of Easter” address published in the Pennsylvania Episcopalian, the diocese of Pennsylvania’s diocesan publication.
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Week of April 14 – 20
“There is no doubt in my mind that the importance the churches and the peace movement placed on protecting the innocents during the pre-war debate was very influential in keeping them from being directly targeted by military planners.“
– Sojourners Magazine Editor-in-Chief Jim Wallis
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Week of April 27 – May 3
“…Cuba has recently experienced an increase in external pressures and interference in its sovereignty and independence, especially by the government of the United States of America…[but Cuban authorities should] not allow their decisions to jeopardize the integrity of the Cuban revolution.”
– WCC General Secretary Konrad Raiser, responding to the conviction of
76 government opponents by the Fidel Castro-led Cuban Government
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Week of May 11 – 17
United Methodist pastor and New Testament theologian Theodore W. Jennings, Jr. has released a book entitled The Man Jesus Loved: Homoerotic Narratives from the New Testament. The book uses references to “the disciple Jesus loved” and the “nude youth” in the Garden of Gesthemene mentioned in the Gospel of Mark to forward his hypothesis that Jesus was a homosexual.
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Week of June 1 – 7
“You don’t have to be gay to be Christian, but it would be easier.”
–Doctoral candidate Rolland McCleary, an Anglican at the University of Queensland.
Mr. McCleary argues in his doctoral thesis that Jesus was a homosexual
–largely based on his astrological chart. Mr. McCleary received $51,000
in public monies for his research.
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Week of June 15 – 21
“Creeds are therefore human creations, written by human beings trying to make sense in their day, of their God experience. That is always what a statement of faith is. The Apostles’ Creed and the Nicene Creed are fourth century Christian creations. Inevitably they assume a fourth century worldview….If we relate to the creeds as documents divinely inspired, which were meant to control our faith and to keep us ‘orthodox,’ then we have become creedal idolaters! Creeds are not like girdles into which we have to fit our minds.
“Let me be specific. The creeds of the church were hammered out in ecclesiastical conventions in a very political way. They represent compromise and political bargaining. They were not dictated by God. They do not thus capture divine truth.”
– Retired Episcopal Bishop John Shelby Spong
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Week of June 29 – July 5
“There is no heavenly God, there is no eternal life, there is no resurrection. That kind of talk never appealed to me.”
– Rev. Thorkild Grosboll, Lutheran minister in Denmark. Grosboll’s
subsequent suspension has been challenged by Grosboll and
several hundred parishoners. Grosboll has not disavowed the statement.
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Week of July 13 – 19
“As far as we know, no church has ever been built from cheese before.”
– Nel Eijk, spokesman for St. Nicholas Church in Edam, Holland.
The Church will attempt to construct a twelve foot replica of the church from
rounds of Edam cheese in order to pay for repairs to the historic church.
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Week of July 20 – 26
“The North Carolina Synod assembly adopted a resolution calling for discussion about the development and use of nuclear weapons within congregations and communities in the synod.”
– Taken from a press release of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
(It is as yet unclear if nuclear weapons inspectors will be dispatched to North Carolina).
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Week of August 3 – 9
“9/11 was arranged [by the Bush administration] to jump start the so-called war on terrorism.”
– Television producer Barrie Zwicker, addressing a public forum organized jointly by the World Association for Christian Communication, Canada’s Simon Fraser University School of Communication, and the Vancouver School of Theology, under the theme “Truth and Trust: Are the Media Connecting Us with the Real World?” Mr. Zwicker also made comparisons between President Bush and Adolf Hitler.
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Week of August 24 – 30
“I don’t see it as any different than a lot of the churches that have different social functions to attract visitors. Bishop just kind of cut to the chase and went to the money.”
– Criss Williams, member of Greenwood Acres Full Gospel Baptist Church in
Shreveport, LA. Bishop Fred Caldwell, Pastor of the church, has begun paying
white visitors $5.00/hour to attend services in an attempt to make the church
more diverse.
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Week of September 7 – 13
“We have realized that, as expressions of faith, there are certain symbols that have stood in the way. The cross has served as a barrier in bringing about a true spirit of reconciliation between Jews and also between Muslims and Christians, and thus, we have sought to remove the cross from our Christian churches across America as a sign of our willingness to remove any barrier that stands in the way of us coming together as people of faith.”
– Archbishop George Augustus Stallings, Jr., of the independent Imani Temple African American Catholic congregation in Washington, DC. An interfaith group founded by Unification Church leader Sun Myung Moon is spearheading an effort to have Christian ministers remove crosses from their churches, calling them a symbol of oppression and perceived superiority.
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Week of September 14 – 20
“I find it illuminating to think of these webs of relationship which constitute our lives as being forcefields of energy in which our various perspectives and ways of embodying the gospel constantly interact – challenging and enlarging one another and thereby more fully revealing God?s truth. Difference, and the capacity to welcome otherness, are essential to the vitality of these various forcefields. And the energy which gives them life is love. This is my understanding of what it means to be the body of Christ.“
– Episcopal Church Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold
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Week of October 5 – 11
“Call to Renewal is a gang truce movement in the church….We have the National Association of Evangelicals at the table and the National Council of Churches. These two groups are like the Crips and the Bloods….I sometimes put a Mennonite between them to make sure nothing happens.”
– Call to Renewal founder Jim Wallis
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Week of October 19 – 25
“The Church has got it wrong in the past – there’s no doubt about it. For most of Christian history, for instance, it was assumed that Jews had no place in the providence of God. I think you can take the view that, just as the Church eventually abolished slavery, so they ended up in favour of votes for women, so they voted for the ordination of women, and this (traditional church teaching on sexuality) is just one more issue where the Church has got it wrong,”
– Rt. Rev. Richard Harries, Anglican Bishop of Oxford
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Week of October 26 – November 1
“When Episcopalians in New Hampshire ordain their new bishop next month, I suspect armed guards will be required. Do you doubt that? Look at Sept. 11 and the destruction wrought by religious intolerance.?
– Religion News Service Columnist and Episcopal Priest Tom Ehrich
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Week of November 2 – 8
“Sexual conduct is surely on the same level of seriousness as eating a bacon sandwich, and we might have hoped that nowadays, given the diversity of human life, the Church would have chosen to shut up about sex.?
– Quotefrom Commentary by A. N. Wilson in 10/19 Telegraph (London)
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Week of November 9 -15
“In our denomination are compassionate Christians. ‘Compassionate conservatives’ is an oxymoron. The Lord we serve is liberal in every way possible, abounding with peace and justice.?
– United Methodist Bishop Felton May, addressing the United Methodist Council of
Bishops meeting in Arlington, VA
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Week of November 16 – 22
“Jackie Robinson shows why it’s O.K. for Gene Robinson to resist the temptation of facing off with his enemies. Just as the Dodgers’ number 42 achieved the greater objective of integrating baseball through the smaller but significant acts of sharpening his baserunning skills and perfecting his swing, let us hope that Bishop Robinson will remain unbowed by the heckling from the pews, and continue to grace the world pulpit as a shining example of decency and goodness.?
– Time magazine columnist Bruce Kluger
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Week of November 23 – 29
An Internet web site has started a sweepstakes offering a free trip to Rome to whoever correctly guesses the date of Pope John Paul II’s death, the length of the conclave that will elect his successor and the successor’s name.
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Week of December 7 – 13
A Billboard in Providence, RI produced by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) features the Virgin Mary holding a dead chicken with the phrase “Go Vegetarian. It’s an Immaculate Conception.” A cross is drawn inside the “o” in “Go.”
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Week of December 14 – 20
“[T]he Republicans are talking like they’re out of the Pharisees. Because if you’re a Christian, you’re a Christian. I don’t believe it ought to matter what kind of a denomination you are. As a matter of fact, if you’re a religious person, you’re a religious person. I don’t think it ought to matter what religion you are.”
– Democratic Presidential Candidate Howard Dean. (In the same
interview, Dean revealed that he had left the Episcopal Church
over a debate regarding a public easement for a bike trail.
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