Faith and State
Obama Suggests Ex-Pastor Is Contrite
03.28.08 -- 5:47 PM
Democrat Barack Obama seemed to suggest in an interview aired Friday that his former pastor has acknowledged that his controversial remarks were inappropriate and hurtful, although there are no public accounts of the minister having done so.
Obama discussed his relationship with the Rev. Jeremiah Wright on ABC's "The View," which was taped Thursday and aired Friday.
"Had the reverend not retired and had he not acknowledged that what he had said had deeply offended people and were inappropriate and mischaracterized what I believe is the greatness of this country, for all its flaws, then I wouldn't have felt comfortable staying there at the church," Obama said.
Obama spokesman Bill Burton said the senator's remarks did not imply that Wright has expressed misgivings about his statements.
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US Supreme Court to review legality of lethal injection
01.07.08 -- 9:26 AM
The US Supreme Court will on Monday begin hearing arguments on the thorny issue of lethal injections in a bid to determine if this method of executing death-row inmates conforms with the constitution, which forbids cruel and unusual punishment.
The review comes after death penalty opponents have demonstrated that lethal injection can in fact be painful, and amid a rise in questions about whether the death penalty generally has been applied fairly and accurately around the country since it was restored in a 1976 Supreme Court decision.
Conceived without much study in 1977 and used in 98 percent of the most recent 500 executions, lethal injection involves three chemicals: the first one puts the prisoner to sleep, the second paralyzes his muscles and the third stops his heart.
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The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, has dismissed the Christmas story of the Three Wise Men as nothing but “legend”
12.20.07 -- 5:57 AM
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, dismissed the Christmas story of the Three Wise Men yesterday as nothing but “legend”.
There was scant evidence for the Magi, and none at all that there were three of them, or that they were kings, he said. All the evidence that existed was in Matthew’s Gospel. The Archbishop said: “Matthew’s Gospel doesn’t tell us there were three of them, doesn’t tell us they were kings, doesn’t tell us where they came from. It says they are astrologers, wise men, priests from somewhere outside the Roman Empire, that’s all we’re really told.” Anything else was legend. “It works quite well as legend,” the Archbishop said.
Further, there was no evidence that there were any oxen or asses in the stable. The chances of any snow falling around the stable in Bethlehem were “very unlikely”. And as for the star rising and then standing still: the Archbishop pointed out that stars just don’t behave like that.
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Are Scientists Playing God? It Depends on Your Religion
11.19.07 -- 10:21 PM
Now that biologists in Oregon have reported using cloning to produce a monkey embryo and extract stem cells, it looks more plausible than before that a human embryo will be cloned and that, some day, a cloned human will be born. But not necessarily on this side of the Pacific.
American and European researchers have made most of the progress so far in biotechnology. Yet they still face one very large obstacle — God, as defined by some Western religions.
While critics on the right and the left fret about the morality of stem-cell research and genetic engineering, prominent Western scientists have been going to Asia, like the geneticists Nancy Jenkins and Neal Copeland, who left the National Cancer Institute and moved last year to Singapore.
Asia offers researchers new labs, fewer restrictions and a different view of divinity and the afterlife. In South Korea, when Hwang Woo Suk reported creating human embryonic stem cells through cloning, he did not apologize for offending religious taboos. He justified cloning by citing his Buddhist belief in recycling life through reincarnation.
When Dr. Hwang’s claim was exposed as a fraud, his research was supported by the head of South Korea’s largest Buddhist order, the Rev. Ji Kwan. The monk said research with embryos was in accord with Buddha’s precepts and urged Korean scientists not to be guided by Western ethics.
“Asian religions worry less than Western religions that biotechnology is about ‘playing God,’” says Cynthia Fox, the author of “Cell of Cells,” a book about the global race among stem-cell researchers. “Therapeutic cloning in particular jibes well with the Buddhist and Hindu ideas of reincarnation.”
You can see this East-West divide in maps drawn up by Lee M. Silver, a molecular biologist at Princeton. Dr. Silver, who analyzes clashes of spirituality and science in his book “Challenging Nature,” has been charting biotechnology policies around the world and trying to make spiritual sense of who’s afraid of what.
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O’Malley urges Democrats to be more open to anti-abortion cause
Boston, Massachusetts
11.16.07 -- 11:15 AM
Cardinal Sean O’Malley is urging the Democratic Party to be more open to anti-abortion viewpoints.
The head of the Boston archdiocese says Democratic leaders aren’t making space in the party for abortion opponents. He says that’s a serious problem in a state like Massachusetts that is politically dominated by the Democrats.
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