A continuation from the previous post; if you really want to cry your eyes out, read here on the Tennessean's home page some of the 166 comments left by folks who wanted some way to console the family of Christian singer Steven Curtis Chapman, whose daughter, Maria Sue, 5, died Wednesday. One of her brothers accidentally ran over her when he was backing out of a driveway.

The funeral was yesterday and 700 people came.

Many of the posts on the newspaper's Web site are from people who've lost children themselves. They are heartrending. Then there's the letter from one of the local school bus drivers. "This cup is so bitter," he wrote.

From another comforter: "Do not think of your daughter as lost," it said. "She is not in your past but in your future."

— Julia Duin, assistant national editor/religion, The Washington Times

Theodicy, for those of you who have not been to seminary, essentially means the problem of evil. Or why God allows evil. That was certainly on my mind last night when I read a press release about the contemporary Christian singer's youngest daughter, Maria Sue, 5, who was killed Wednesday night near Nashville. According to Associated Press, her 17-year-old brother was backing out of the driveway in the family SUV and she got run over. There is a heart-wrenching photo of the entire family here, including the three daughters who were adopted from China. I am not certain which one was Maria Sue.

The Chapman family.

Steven Chapman is well known to attenders of the National Prayer Breakfast. A favorite of the Bushes, he is often there each year singing and playing the piano. I was talking with a friend who deals in car insurance and she was telling me how depressingly common these deaths are. The child involved is always around 5 years old, just before the age when they would know better than to stand in the path of a car but old enough to be able to slip from someone's grasp and run outside or across the lawn or into the street.

Even so, you can't help but ask the Almighty why. What sense does it make to allow a 5-year-old to be crushed to death? Why couldn't someone or something have prevented it? Maybe she could have lingered longer over dinner or her shoelaces or something that would have stopped the inexorable momentum that took her under the path of an SUV. Some of you may remember hearing from the folks who survived Sept. 11. Each of them was supposed to be in one of the two towers that morning but something came up; they were running late, they had a doctor's appointment, they overslept.

Why not Maria Sue? Theodicy is not something that comes up in journalism a whole lot, but it came up today as I was preparing a piece for Saturday's paper on John Hagee, the San Antonio pastor who gave John McCain a controversial endorsement in late February. He had no sooner done that than all sorts of opposition researchers began digging up old Hagee quotes and sermons. I briefly covered Hagee in the late 1980s while a reporter for the Houston Chronicle. My interview dealt with whether he believed in a "two covenant" theory that allowed Jews to get to heaven without believing in Jesus. He sure seemed to think so when we talked in 1988 although later he was furious at the interview and said that's not what he really meant.

One of his main points during the interview was his dislike of the "replacement theory," which holds that the Christian new covenant has replaced the Jewish old covenant. That, he said, was anti-Semitic and he would fight tooth-and-nail against such beliefs. He seemed on quite the warpath against anti-Semitism then and when I interviewed him years later in 2006. So, to hear the McCain campaign was disassociating itself from him because of his "anti-Semitism" seemed all too improbable.

Come to find out someone had dug up some Hagee quotes linking Hitler to a "hunter" appointed by God to drive them out of the diaspora and back into Israel; in other words, Hitler was fulfilling God's wish by allowing the Holocaust which in turn moved the surviving Jews to flee to Israel which led to the founding of the Jewish state - you get the idea. Hagee was accused of anti-Semitism by even suggesting the Holocaust had somehow played a role in God's plan and so McCain - not known for being the most theologically astute of the candidates - sent the televangelist packing.

The Arizona senator really needs to hire a good theologian because he misjudged this incident. On Friday - and this is what my article is about - Hagee's Jewish defenders said the whole matter was about theodicy; why God allowed 6 million Jews to die in the Holocaust and that Hagee's comments had been misconstrued. Jewish scholars disagree on this among themselves, David Brog, Hagee's assistant, told me.

"This is a legitimate effort to grapple with the age-old question of why God allows evil in the world," he said. "Pastor Hagee was not, as some are claiming, saying the Holocaust was good. He has, repeatedly throughout his life, said the Holocaust was the greatest of tragedies. But there is a long-standing Jewish tradition of searching for divine explanations for tragedy. For people who are biblical literalists, God is omnipotent; therefore, they maintain, God must have allowed the Holocaust to happen."

At a press conference Friday with Hagee, Orthodox Rabbi Aryeh Scheinberg of Congregation Rodfei Sholom in San Antonio said Hagee "interpreted a biblical verse in a way not very different from several legitimate Jewish authorities. Viewing Hitler as acting completely outside of God's plan is to suggest that God was powerless to stop the Holocaust, a position quite unacceptable to any religious Jew or Christian.

"No less an authority than the author of the Eim Habanim Semaichah, Rabbi Yisachar Shlomo Teichtal of blessed memory wrote these words while cowering in a Budapest cellar in the very midst of Hitler's Holocaust: "Furthermore, the sole purpose of all the afflictions that smite us in our exile is to arouse us to return to our Holy Land."

Would if Israel would have been founded 60 years ago this month had the Holocaust not happened. Out of great evil came that good. But what good could possibly come out of the death of a 5-year-old girl?

— Julia Duin, assistant national editor/religion, The Washington Times

Just to note that Box Office Mojo says 55 million (instead of the hoped-for 85 million) viewers showed up to see "Prince Caspian" over the weekend. That is not chump change but there has been some question as to whether Disney will continue to invest in the 7-part Narnia series after "The Voyage of the Dawn Treader" opens in 2010.

One thing that might explain the lower numbers is the behavior of Disney itself. Back in January, I was researching "Caspian" for a magazine article I was freelancing. I noticed USA Today had been given a sneak peak at aspects of the film, such as getting a packet of photos to run with the article. Since the moratorium, as it were, appeared to be broken, I tried doing the same: asking Disney for similiar photos that could run on our pop culture page, plus interviews with folks such as Douglas Gresham, stepson to the late C.S. Lewis, creator of Narnia. Usually our entertainment writers handle films but when there's religious content, the religion writer can -- and often does -- step in.

To my chagrin and disgust, Disney refused to let me have any photos until some magic moment in early May, right when *they* wanted articles to run before the May 16 release date. Nor would they let me interview anyone connected with the film. I even contacted Mr. Gresham overseas only to find out he -- regretfully -- had pledged to Disney (probably signed some agreement, I am guessing) that he would only talk to whom and whenever Disney approved.

I informed Disney's reps that we really needed articles for our pop culture page then -- early February, not three months later -- and that I'd appreciate it if they'd make folks available. After all, they had released material to USA Today, no? Well, no dice. Disney wanted me to be part of their pre-film promo effort but early February was not to their liking. They were not going to release anything, nor let me talk with anyone. Soooo, I told them that I would decide when articles run, not them. And that if they were going to be so greedy, I wouldn't write "Caspian" up at all. And I didn't.

So, for those of you wondering why the box office numbers were a bit low last weekend, maybe it's because other media got the same treatment and decided they were not going to be puppets dancing to Disney's tune. And so the coverage was not what it could have been.

— Julia Duin, assistant national editor/religion, The Washington Times

Well, I am waiting for the weekly e-mail from Box Office Mojo that will tell me what the weekend turnout was for "Prince Caspian," the second of C. S. Lewis' 7-part Chronicles of Narnia series. I liked the film, although the directors took plenty of liberties with the plot. Beginning the film with the birth of Miraz' son was a good move, I thought, as that swung the viewer into the action right off rather than the book's slower opening scenes at Cair Paravel.

The film's makers had better hope the number of opening weekend viewers was more than the 25 folks who sat with me on mid-day Saturday in the Lee Highway multiplex in northern Virginia. I agreed with the reviewer from Christianity Today who wrote that the film had some definite minuses, such as writing Aslan out of most of the script! I thought the attack on Miraz' castle (which did not appear in the book) was a bad decision; why couldn't the filmmakers have made more of Aslan leading the children up and down the gorge, which *was* in the book?

And that sappy song that broke in at the high point near the ending just when the children were saying good-bye to Narnia and Aslan? Fortunately the film was ending, because I left at that point. Please, folks, quit trying to introduce the next American Idol through these weird solos attached to the end of fantasy movies. They didn't work well with the "Lord of the Rings" films and they don't work here.

The portrayals of Reepicheep, the gryphons and the centaurs were really cool, by the way. And I think the filmmakers did the right thing in cutting out those strange Bacchus sequences that were in the book.

Anyway. Seeing the film made me re-read two later books in the series: "The Silver Chair" and "The Last Battle." Lewis' prose was profound but also simple. He didn't always use a ton of description, leaving a lot of room for movie makers to improvise.

Judging by the sniping comments on some of the blogs, lots of viewers have real problems with Lewis' Christian world view. Hmmm, folks. If you have problems with what's shown in "Prince Caspian," you are going to have major issues with "The Last Battle," which essentially portrays Aslan's Second Coming. That book is loaded with Christian imagery, especially at the end. Either the filmmakers are going to have to make major compromises if they water that down or just bite the bullet and be true to the original story.

— Julia Duin, assistant national editor/religion, The Washington Times

This past weekend, I spent time with Kurds; the first event being an all-day hearing on the Hill involving Kirkuk, the much-disputed oil-rich Iraqi city known as the Kurdish Jerusalem. The Washington Kurdish Institute put together a very impressive line-up of speakers to argue for residents of the city being allowed to vote on their future. Article 140 of the Iraqi constitution allows for self-determination, but the vote allowing the city's residents to do so keeps on getting put off.

And the Americans occupying much of Iraq aren't doing much to help matters for their loyal Kurdish allies. The Americans and the Turks — who are also supposed to be our allies — don't want residents to vote to join the city to the already existing Kurdish Regional Government. The city historically was Kurdish until Saddam Hussein, starting in 1968, purged the city of much of its Kurds, moving Arab Iraqis into its precincts and splitting off the city's suburbs into adjoining provinces.

One interesting factoid dropped during the hearing in the Rayburn building was how the Kirkuk question is partly a Muslim vs Muslim argument. Some Sunni Muslims want the Kurdish government to take over Kirkuk because the Kurds are Sunnis themselves. This is far more preferable to the city coming under control of the Shi'ites who control Baghdad's government. Turkey's Muslims are also Sunnis but because of historic hatreds between the Kurds and the Turks, they don't want Kirkuk turned over to the Kurds.

The Kurds — whose flag I have included on this post — have called themselves "the Jews of the Arab world" because of the persecution directed toward them by both Sunni and Shi'ite. What happens to the Kurds will have a domino effect all over the Middle East, which may be why a yarmulkeh-wearing official with the Zionist Organization of America was seated in the back row quietly listening.

I was quite interested, being that I spent three weeks inside Iraqi Kurdistan (Erbil, Dohuk and Sulaimaniya) and Turkish Kurdistan (Van, Sanli Urfa, Mardin, Cizre, Silopi and Diyarbakir) in July 2004, plus invested a year in learning the Sorani version of Kurdish. On Saturday night, my daughter and I attended a 20th anniversary banquet held by the Kurdish National Congress where we danced Kurdish dances until 11 p.m. There was such a joy to all that movement but at the same time, a banquet participant told me, a listlessness felt by all the Kurds.

"All the Kurds want is independence," he said. "They will never rest until they get it." Considering all the odds against them, this will be a long wait. But consider Israel, which declared independence 60 years ago this month. They too were surrounded by hostile neighbors, who invaded them the moment independence was declared. To paraphrase Jesse Jackson, they didn't wait for the right time. They made the time right and 60 years later, we're observing their anniversary.

The Kurds may need to make just as bold a move for themselves.

— Julia Duin, assistant national editor/religion, The Washington Times

It looks like, after Cardinal Edward Egan's public blast at New York Mayor Rudolf Giuiliani for taking Communion at St. Patrick's Cathedral against the cardinal's orders, another politician is being told to stay away from the altar. Read here for Kansas Archbishop Joseph's Naumann's orders to Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius to not take Communion because of her consistent pro-abortion votes. This just came out in the The Leaven, the archdiocesan newspaper.

So, are other bishops going to get into the act regarding some of the better-known politicians who took Communion during some of the papal Masses last month? We have already listed Senators Ted Kennedy, John Kerry and Chris Dodd, along with House Majority Speaker Nancy Pelosi as having partook at the April 17 Nationals stadium Mass despite their consistent pro-choice votes over the years.

And now a possible headache for Portland, Me., Bishop Joseph Malone: We now have a photo of *another* pro-choice politician who seated in the front row of the VIP section during the Mass. Our source, who had a birds-eye view of the area, says that row emptied out as people lined up to take the sacrament. Still, we thought we'd check with Sen. Collins' office to hear from her whether she took Communion or not. That was Friday.

While we are waiting for a response, here is a photo of the VIP section with Sens. Kerry and Kennedy in full view:

Use your eyes, folks: Who else do you see standing there that we have not yet recognized? Isn't that Sen. Collins in the front row in red to the far left? Recognize anyone else? Send in those names! Let's see who — if any — Catholic bishops will follow the leads of Mssrs Egan and Naumann by admonishing the politicians in their flock to stay away.

For the record, back in 2004, some 15 bishops, in various degrees, told politicians in their jurisdictions and/or Senator Kerry, who was running for president at the time, to not take Communion at their altars.

— Julia Duin, assistant national editor/religion, The Washington Times

My goodness, what a bomb that turned out to be: An "evangelical manifesto" put out by a cadre of religious leaders that got burned by criticism within a few hours of its release.

First, read up on the manifesto here. Then read some of the early reactions I got here.

I can understand the wishes of the drafters to put forth a kinder, gentler evangelicalism. "We are not theocrats," one of the drafters said at the press conference. But a lot of what was in the document was not at all new and it was clear they were taking slaps at the politically involved evangelicals who, by the way, were not allowed to sign on. Naturally those were the folks who threw a few barbed quotes back at the drafters.

Also the paucity of black and female signers on this document was pretty obvious. There are many evangelical female scholars in the D.C. area who could have signed on and shown up at the press conference. Why weren't any of them sought out? Organizers cited a lack of time but the word on the street is they spent plenty of time trying to balance out the document with certain signees from the right and the left. Surely they could have found some local women and black leaders.

Although one speaker assured us that, "Being born again is at the heart of evangelical religion," I didn't see the term much in the document. The drafters seemed to shy away from what they considered to be a loaded term. One said evangelicalism is a "renewal movement" and that evangelicals have "an intense personal commitment to Jesus." Well, a lot of Christians can claim that one. It might have been clearer to go the Billy Graham route and stress that evangelicals believe in an adult commitment to Christ, preferably at a specific time and date. That does draw the line.

Although Wednesday's press conference was staged by a Texas PR firm, the presentation turned out to be somewhat of a disaster. I mean, one of their pleas was to capitalize the word, as in "Evangelical" when referring to them, just as one would capitalize a denomination, such Catholic or Methodist. "Oh please," I thought. Is this what it's come down to?

— Julia Duin, assistant national editor/religion, The Washington Times

Evangelicals claiming what it means to be evangelical? It's all happening here.

There's going to be an odd press conference Wednesday morning at the National Press Club where a blue-ribbon panel of Protestant evangelicals are going to issue a manifesto (that is the real word they use) decrying the overuse of the word "evangelical."

Os Guinness, of the Burke-based Trinity Forum, Richard Mouw of Fuller Theological Seminary and officials from Christianity Today are forming the panel that is going to redefine the word, apparently due to its overuse by certain politicians anxious to state their bonafides with God. I called Larry Ross, the moderator, to see what it's all about.

"They were concerned about the confusion and corruption of the term," he said. "It now has connotations that don't even match the meaning any more. In some quarters, the word has become prejorative."

Guinness, a thinker associated with the late Francis Schaeffer, wrote the initial draft of the document along with David Neff of Chrstianity Today, he said. It was then sent to some 70-80 Christian leaders to be vetted.

"There's some teeth in this," Ross said. "There are three mandates there."

We have not managed to have this document leaked to us yet so we will schlep through rush-hour traffic to the Press Club to pick up a copy. (Question: Why can't these folks have press conferences a bit later in the morning??)

Janice Shaw Crouse, director of the Concerned Women for America's Beverly LaHaye Institute, issued a statement Tuesday casting some doubts on the whole enterprise.

"The select group drafting the manifesto apparently excludes traditional conservative, pro-life and pro-family evangelical voices," she said. "Further, the timing of the manifesto — at the end of primary election season and just before the general election in a presidential election year — makes this a decidedly political document when millions of evangelical votes are at stake."

She and I had the same problem with this panel. It's all men, despite the fact that churches are usually 60 percent female.

"This is so typical," she emailed me.

Stay tuned for Thursday's paper.

— Julia Duin, assistant national editor/religion, The Washington Times

I have gotten strange press releases before, but this one ranks up there. It's from the Shalom Center, an anti-war Jewish group in Philadelphia that I got to know about while doing the anti-war beat in the early months of 2003. I am curious: What is "experiencing nature from a Jewish perspective"? Are there Jewish farms in Vermont? What makes a farm Jewish as opposed to Hindu or Buddhist? Is it where cattle are slaughtered in a kosher fashion?

Read on:

Jewish Educators Gather to Heal the Planet

Dear Friends,

This summer, for the first time in its 33-year history CAJE--Coalition for the Advancement of Jewish Education--is offering an ECO-Track at its conference at the University of Vermont in Burlington, beginning August 10.

CAJE has put together a wonderful array of 59 sessions on Judaism and ecology from the practical to the pleasurable to the sublime. The Shalom Center will have an important role, along with other major eco-Jewish organizations.

SCHOLARSHIPS are available to COLLEGE students (apply through the Schusterman Fellowship program).
SCHOLARSHIPS are available to adults (who need them) who plan on taking at least 10 sessions in the ECO-Track
And College Credit is available from Hebrew College for those who are taking at least 10 eco-track sessions and are interesting in getting academic credit.

Scholarships are on a first-come, first-served basis, so apply now!

To learn more and register, go to www.caje.org or https://www.regonline.com/builder/site/Default.aspx?eventid=185056

From The Shalom Center, Rabbi Arthur Waskow will be one of the major speakers at the opening Shabbat and will also teach and help shape Tisha B'Av observance on Sunday (taking into account ancient midrash that saw the destruction of the Temple as a microcosmic forewarning of global destruction). Noam Dolgin, composer of The Shalom Center's curriculum for Bar/ Bat Mitzvah and confirmation-age youth on global climate crisis -- "Elijah's Covenant Between the Generations" -- will also teach, on behalf of our Green Menorah Covenant campaign.

You're invited to daven outdoors; to learn in the Eco beit midrash, to study with an array of 20 teachers who have been developing the field Judaism and ecology for over 20 years, to hike and bike in the beautiful Vermont countryside, to experience nature from a Jewish perspective, to discover the world of Jewish farms and farming and how to bring these practices to your classroom. You're invited to learn how to teach Jewish values by using nature's classroom.

For the first time, 20 pioneers in the field of Judaism and ecology are joining together with the hopes of creating a sea change in Jewish education and therefore the Jewish community, involving Jews more deeply in ecological thinking and environmental concerns. Ellen Bernstein, one of the pioneers of eco-Judaism, is coordinating the ECO-track.

You don't need to be a professional Jewish educator to love the CAJE conference. The Conference is for all of us who love learning and experiencing the joy of Jewish community, especially for those who have a strong interest in environment, nature or the outdoors.

If you have questions or concerns, please contact David Frank at dfrank@caje.org.

Hope to see you there -

Arthur

— Julia Duin, assistant national editor/religion, The Washington Times

This just in as one of my 744 emails from the Best Christian Workplaces Institute, claiming to list the finest places to work as a believing Christian. I assume they mean Protestant evangelical, as all the places listed below all come under that category.

I wondered just what makes a work place "best" to work in. The criteria from their press release are at the bottom of this post although I am puzzled as to why they'd list pay and benefits last. That'd be near the top of my list. Religious organizations are notorious for paying low.

A few of the places listed, I wondered about, such as the Master's College and Seminary in Santa Clarita. I was on that campus teaching a seminar a few years back and the place seemed kind of stark to me. Now Huntington University, a place I've also visited, is another case altogether. Flush with lots of donor dollars, it is a real Cadillac in terms of Christian colleges.

I've been to the Alliance Defence Fund's headquarters in Scottsdale. Not bad. Of course being anywhere in Scottsdale is luxurious, IMHO. Notice that only company in the Christian business mecca of Colorado Springs is listed. And what's this with Duluth, Georgia?

Anyway, there were 7,834 people in 67 organizations polled. That last number doesn't sound all that high.

Here's the release:

Mercer Island, WA - April 24, 2008 - The Best Christian Workplaces Institute (BCWI) has announced the 33 Certified Best Christian Workplaces in the US for 2008. They are:

Bellevue Christian School, Bellevue, Wash.

Apartment Life, Hurst, Texas

Christian Heritage Academy, Northfield, Illinois

Coalition for Christian Outreach, Pittsburgh, Penn.

Indian Rocks Christian School, Largo, Fla.

Crown Financial Ministries, Gainesville, Ga.

Lenawee Christian School, Adrian, Mich.

EQUIP, Duluth, Ga.

Stoneybrooke Christian School, Ladera Ranch, Calif.

Joni and Friends. Agoura Hills, Calif.

Wheaton Academy, West Chicago, Ill.

MOPS International, Denver, Colo.

New Mission Systems International, Fort Myers, Fla.

Evangel University, Springfield, Mo.

Open Doors with Brother Andrew, Santa Ana, Calif.

Huntington University, Huntington, Ind.

The Master's College, Santa Clarita, Calif.

The Master's Seminary, Santa Clarita, Calif.

Tacoma Rescue Mission, Tacoma, Wash.

Olivet Nazarene University, Bourbonnas, Ill.

Phoenix Seminary, Phoenix, Ariz.

Harvest House Publishers, Eugene, Ore.

Alliance Defense Fund, Scottsdale, Ariz.

Howard Books, West Monroe, La.

DeMoss Group, Inc., Duluth, Ga.

Urban Ministries, Inc., Calumet City, Ill.

Envoy Financial, Colorado Springs, Colo.

INJOY Stewardship Services, Duluth, Ga.

Logos Research Systems Inc., Bellingham, Wash.

Crossroads Community, Cincinnati, Ohio

Samaritan Ministries International, Peoria, Ill.

Southland Christian Church, Lexington, Ky

Criteria:

Job Satisfaction – This measures employees’ attitudes toward their job and their overall feeling about the organization. Because the degree a staff person is engaged in their job, they will be an asset to their organization rather than a deficit, this is also a measure of their support.

Organizational Commitment – This category looks at the level of loyalty that is felt by staff towards the organization. Since this is an important ingredient in not only keeping training cost down, but also in retaining qualified workers, it looks at that as well. It also addresses what direction the company is moving – is it improving?

Christian Witness – Something unique compared to other surveys, the Best Christian Workplaces Survey exposes to what extent faith is evident in the workplace. This includes such things as the opportunity to use spiritual gifts, evidence of fruit of the Spirit in leadership, presence of Christian fellowship, and making decisions according to what the Bible teaches.

Supervisory Effectiveness – Here the fitness of those in leadership is addressed. Are the leaders compassionate, just, and trustworthy? Further, are they there to help employees accomplish their jobs as they should be?

Work Satisfaction – This examines the degree to which employees feel good about the work they do. If they are effective in their work they will feel fulfilled and enjoy what they do, so they are asked about these things in particular. This also depends on such things as adequate training, the opportunity to use the skills they have, and clear communication regarding what the goals are, all of which are covered in the survey.

Personal Growth and Development - Here an atmosphere of encouragement and equipping is checked. Realizing that employees need to be invested in, not only through training programs, but also the support of those around them, the survey checks for these vital elements. Further, is good work rewarded?

Management Effectiveness – Questions regarding integrity, balance, and wisdom are found under this group. Also, does management institute processes to ensure honesty, a limit to work demands and empowerment for employees?

Customer/Supporter Satisfaction – In order to measure this employees are asked if they would recommend their products/services to their friends and family. Also, issues such as emphasis upon long-term relationships with customers, strategy to meet the needs of those they serve, and overall satisfaction levels are evaluated.

Teamwork – How well staff work together is the focus of this category. This draws upon conflict resolution skills, managing diversity and a common commitment to excellence. It also addresses the issue of proper hiring standards to ensure a capable workforce.

Communications – This examines Top Down, Bottom Up and Peer to Peer communications. Communication serves both to transfer information and also bring unity, so these effects are also asked about. The survey also checks to see if the communication encourages accountability and trust as it should. When employees are allowed to express their ideas it is a means of empowerment, so do they feel empowered? Effective work requires good lines of communication to share ideas, resolve conflict, and encourage each other in our service to God and all these things are surveyed.

Pay and Benefits – Here pay, health plan, vacation package, and retirement plan are looked at in terms of employee satisfaction. Their perception of pay and benefit competitiveness is also included.

— Julia Duin, assistant national editor/religion, The Washington Times