Religion News Service

from RNS

Offering both a daily and weekly news service, RNS provides a compilation of stories covering the latest news and information about religion, ethics, and moral issues. Monday through Friday, RNS offers daily subscribers four to six feature pieces. Every Wednesday a summary report is compiled and distributed to weekly subscribers. All subscribers have access to the RNS photo service.

Samples

RELIGION NEWS SERVICE

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E-mail: info@religionnews.com

Kevin Eckstrom, Editor

Copyright 2007 Religion News Service. All rights reserved. No part of this transmission may be reproduced without written permission.

Index of Daily Report

Wednesday, March 7, 2007

Nine articles are being transmitted today:

Churches Often the First Stage for 'Idol' Contestants

By ADELLE M. BANKS and SALLY YORK

Battle Over Episcopal Bishop Looms in South Carolina

By DANIEL BURKE

10 Minutes With ... Paul Barrett

By ANDREA USEEM

Wednesday News Digest

Compromise Allows Return of Cross to William and Mary Chapel

Survey: Three-quarters of Americans Believe Moral Values Have Weakened

Christian School Could Lose Contract Over Transgender Dispute

Basketball, Beliefs Get Day in Court

Quote of the Day: Eastern Mennonite University President Loren Swartzendruber

COMMENTARY: Chasing Mary Magdalene

By PHYLLIS ZAGANO

GUEST COMMENTARY: Ted Haggard is 'Completely Sexual,' and So Are We

By PATTON DODD

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Editors: To obtain photos of LaKisha Jones and the current 'American Idol' finalists, go to the RNS Web site at www.religionnews.com. On the lower right, click on "photos," then search by subject or slug.

Churches Often the First Stage for 'Idol' Contestants

With optional trim to 775 words
Editors: LaKisha is CQ
By ADELLE M. BANKS and SALLY YORK
c. 2007 Religion News Service

(UNDATED) When LaKisha Jones belted out a song from the movie "Dreamgirls" in her debut on this season of "American Idol," the Michigan church that helped nurture her soulful sound was rooting her on.

The musical careers of Jones and some other "Idol" contestants -- past and present -- were birthed in churches across the country, settings where many singers perform each Sunday to a not-so-nationwide audience.

"Years and years of singing in church and never making a living off of something that I love to do," said Jones, a 27-year-old bank teller, summing up her musical career in a videotaped interview aired on the Fox talent show. "And now to have the opportunity ... it's a good feeling."

Churches, especially African-American churches, have often been the training ground for artists who make it to America's most prominent stages. As artists move from sacred to secular realms, their ministers of music and church choirs -- as well as supportive parishioners -- are cheering them on.

Members of Mount Zion Missionary Baptist Church in Jones' hometown of Flint, Mich., are busting with pride over the singer, whose powerful voice once belonged to their Voices of Mount Zion adult choir. Jones now lives at Fort Meade, Md.

"She's always been our 'American Idol,'" said Cassandra Ellison, a Voices member for 13 years. "She was always the one who stood out."

At a recent Sunday morning service, Jones' mother, Beverly Jefferson, said "LaKisha would like to thank everybody for their support and votes" in the popular televised competition.

The connections between contestants and church don't surprise Christian music experts like Teresa Hairston, founder of Gospel Today magazine.

"There are so many people that have started in gospel, famous people like Elvis Presley, Al Green and Aretha Franklin and Gladys Knight," she said in an interview as she kicked off her Gospel Heritage Foundation's recent "Praise & Worship Conference" in Washington.

"So many people who came from the church."

(BEGIN FIRST OPTIONAL TRIM)

When opera singer Denyce Graves spearheaded a CD project in 2003, "Church: Songs of Soul and Inspiration," the first requirement for the featured singers was that they had grown up in church. Patti LaBelle, Shirley Caesar, Chaka Khan, Dionne Warwick and Graves herself all fit that bill.

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When artists move on from the church, music ministers hope their faith remains with the fame.

Minister Ternae Jordan Jr., a worship leader at Mount Canaan Baptist Church in Chattanooga, Tenn., once sang backup for gospel artists with current "Idol" contestant Melinda Doolittle.

"Though she's doing the majority of everything in the secular realm, in the secular field, right now, she's bringing the cross over instead of crossing over," said Jordan, who attended the Praise & Worship Conference.

Doolittle, who attends the same Nashville, Tenn., church as gospel artist CeCe Winans and sang backup on one of her CDs, talked about her faith in a "Fast Facts" feature on the "American Idol" Web site.

Her personal goals, she said, were to "represent Christ well and do everything 150 percent."

Demetrus Stewart, president of the PureSprings Gospel Label that features Winans and other artists, said the style of many black churches gives singers the ability to do the musical runs and note-stretching that bring audiences to their feet. It's the kind of sound that differentiates R&B from pop, she said, and urban gospel from contemporary Christian music.

"You've got to be able to, in the words of our slang, throw down," said Stewart, who is African-American.

Sam Patton, a music director at New United Church in Chattanooga, said music ministers like himself generally use their "picky" techniques to help a corps of volunteers create a grand choir sound. But, on occasion, they may discover a potential recording artist. He's currently helping a budding artist cut her first album.

Patton said the range of church music -- including elements of jazz and R&B, country and classical -- helps prepare artists, such as former "Idol" celebrities Ruben Studdard and Fantasia Barrino, for musical careers.

"It's easier for them because they have sung so many different styles in church," said Patton, who also was at the Washington conference. "With praise and worship evolving like it is, you have to be versatile."

Sometimes that versatility leads to appearances at talent shows, either secular, like "Idol," or religious. Trinity Broadcasting Network and the Gospel Music Channel have produced Christian talent competitions. Current "Idol" contestant Jordin Sparks placed second in the Gospel Music Association's "Music in the Rockies" competition in 2005.

"The 'American Idol' syndrome is even spilling over in the church so there are several within the Christian gospel community," Stewart said.

(SECOND OPTIONAL TRIM FOLLOWS)

But for some churchgoers -- including members of Jones' Flint congregation -- the "Idol" stage seems particularly attractive, in part because one of their own is there.

"When I'm 16, I'm going to try out," said Ariele Hayman, a 13-year-old member of the same youth choir that once included Jones.

(Adelle M. Banks reported from Washington. Sally York, a reporter for the Flint Journal, reported from Flint, Mich.)

PHOTOS:

(1) LaKisha Jones performs in front of the judges on "American Idol." Jones got her singing start at a church in Flint, Mich. For use with RNS-IDOL-CHURCHES, transmitted March 7, 2007. Religion News Service photo courtesy Frank Micelotta/Fox.

(2) LaKisha Jones performs in front of the judges on "American Idol." Jones got her singing start at a church in Flint, Mich. For use with RNS-IDOL-CHURCHES, transmitted March 7, 2007. Religion News Service photo courtesy Michael Becker/Fox.

(3) "American Idol" contestant LaKisha Jones got her singing start at a church in Flint, Mich. For use with RNS-IDOL-CHURCHES, transmitted March 7, 2007. Religion News Service photo courtesy Fox.

(4) The Final 16 contestants on "American Idol." LaKisha Jones is second from the left, middle row; Melinda Doolittle is far left, front row. For use with RNS-IDOL-CHURCHES, transmitted March 7, 2007. Religion News Service photo courtesy Fox.

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Editors: To obtain a photo of Mark Lawrence, go to the RNS Web site at www.religionnews.com. On the lower right, click on "photos," then search by subject or slug.

Battle Over Episcopal Bishop Looms in South Carolina

By DANIEL BURKE
c. 2007 Religion News Service

(UNDATED) A large number of Episcopal dioceses are refusing to approve South Carolina's conservative choice for bishop, throwing his consecration into doubt and aggravating tensions in the bitterly divided Episcopal Church.

Gaining the required "consents" for a new bishop from a majority of the church's dioceses is usually a formality.

But with a March 12 deadline looming, only 47 of 110 dioceses have approved South Carolina's choice of the Rev. Mark Lawrence, a conservative priest from Bakersfield, Calif.

Under church laws, a majority of active bishops and diocesan standing committees each must approve Lawrence within 120 days of his Sept. 16 election. Lawrence received approval from the required number of bishops on March 1, but if he is not approved by the dioceses, his election is null and void.

Episcopal bishops haven't rejected a candidate since 1957, and dioceses haven't rejected a bishop-elect since the 1870s, according to Episcopalians who have studied the matter.

Those involved in the current consent process say it has taken on the charged atmosphere of a partisan political contest, with accusations of "smear campaigns," mass mailings and long-distance phone calls to key constituents.

The church's liberal majority, fresh from a battering by the international Anglican Communion over its support for gay rights, may be anxious to assert its sway in Episcopal politics.

"More than a few dioceses have asked things of me that have never been asked of candidates in the Episcopal Church's history," Lawrence, 56, said in an interview.

Lawrence is currently a priest in the Diocese of San Joaquin, Calif., which has taken preliminary steps to leave the U.S. church. Both the San Joaquin and South Carolina dioceses belong to a conservative breakaway group, and have rejected the authority of Episcopal Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori.

Lionel Deimel, a member of Progressive Episcopalians of Pittsburgh, said he kick-started the campaign to deny Lawrence consent. Deimel, 60, said he's concerned that under Lawrence, the diocese of South Carolina would secede from the church.

"Imagine a candidate running for the U.S. Senate who was on record as being opposed to maintaining the Constitution as the basis of our government," Deimel wrote in an essay that Episcopal activists sent to every diocese and bishop.

Lawrence says his words have been taken out of context. In an essay published in an Episcopal magazine last summer, Lawrence advocated for the "surrender of the Episcopal Church's autonomy" to outside Anglican archbishops, who have stepped in to provide guidance to the vocal minority of conservative Episcopalians.

Asked by Episcopal bishops in November what he would do if the diocese of South Carolina decided to leave the church, Lawrence said such questions are not "reasonable or helpful," according to a transcript of the inquiry.

The bishops' questions were "unfair," Lawrence said Monday (March 5), because they asked about a hypothetical situation without providing details.

"If you're going to ask me which way I'm going to steer the ship, then tell me a little more about the storm. ... Then I'll tell you the direction I'm going," Lawrence said.

PHOTO:

The Rev. Mark Lawrence is the Episcopal bishop-elect of South Carolina. Lawrence has had trouble gaining "consents" to his election from other Episcopal dioceses. For use with RNS-CAROLINA-BISHOP, transmitted March 7, 2007. Religion News Service photo courtesy of Episcopal News Service.

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Editors: To obtain a photo of Paul Barrett, go to the RNS Web site at www.religionnews.com. On the lower right, click on "photos," then search by subject or slug.

10 Minutes With ... Paul Barrett

By ANDREA USEEM
c. 2007 Religion News Service

(UNDATED) After experiencing Sept. 11, 2001, firsthand at the Wall Street Journal office in Lower Manhattan, Paul Barrett began writing a series of articles about Muslims in America for the paper.

Those articles evolved into his new book, "American Islam: The Struggle for the Soul of a Religion," which profiles seven American Muslims, including an African-American preacher popular among immigrants, a scholar whose interpretations of holy texts earn him death threats, and an Idaho graduate student who simultaneously condemned and promoted terrorism.

Barrett, now the assistant managing editor at BusinessWeek, talked about radicalism, presidential politics and awkward moments for a Jew among Muslims.

Q: Why do you describe American Muslims as an immigration success story?

A: America is famous for providing opportunities for education and economic advancement to people who come from foreign lands. Muslims fit into that pattern.

As a group, Muslims are better educated than Americans generally, their family income is higher, and they even register to vote at a higher rate than Americans do generally.

Q: Your book portrays different American Muslims as having sympathies for terrorist causes and organizations, such as Hezbollah. Are those sympathies the norm?

A: Many Muslims in America have powerful antipathy for Israel, but Israel is one of the United States' closest allies. It's fair to say many Muslims in America have some degree of sympathy for groups like Hezbollah and Hamas, although they don't necessarily approve of all their tactics. Bridging that gap will be a challenge, and I'm not sure how it will be done.

Q: How do you draw the line between conservative Islam and a dangerous, radical Islam?

A: Describing someone as a conservative or orthodox, or even fundamentalist, Muslim is not the same as suggesting that person is violent or dangerous. Muslims, like Christians and Jews and Hindus, should be allowed the freedom to practice their religion in the U.S., including if that goes in a fundamentalist direction. That's their privilege in our country.

Q: How can Americans be sure that an event like the 2005 subway bombings in London, which were carried out by British Muslims, will never happen here?

A: We can't, but we in the U.S. are in a much better position to prevent such events. There is not the powerful degree of alienation and resentment (among Muslims) common in England and Western Europe.

We have to make sure that any people -- and, let's be candid, this tends to be younger men, not grandmothers and 5-year-old girls -- who show signs of solving Islam's problems by blowing something up are pulled into the fold and talked out of bad ideas.

Q: The majority of Americans who convert to Islam are black males. What about the religion appeals to them?

A: What was attractive to Malcolm X remains attractive to some younger black Americans today. It is an expression of a sense of independence in a society that is still sometimes hostile to non-whites. The religion attracts many black Americans the way it attracts people around the world, whether it's the person of the Prophet (Muhammad), or the Quran. A number of African-Americans I interviewed found an appeal in the way Islam describes the unity of God, as an alternative to the notion of the Holy Trinity.

Q: White Americans often come to Islam through its mystical branch, known as Sufism. Sufis seem to hold a marginal position in the American Muslim community. Why is that?

A: There aren't that many Americans who would say "I'm a Sufi" because of the powerful disapproval that Sufis suffer in the eyes of many other Muslims. But quite a few Muslims in the U.S. engage in Sufi practices, such as dhikr (chanting or singing holy words) or even just having an admiration for the poetry of Rumi.

Q: Your book describes how many Muslims organized to support President Bush in the 2000 elections. How do you think they'll vote in 2008?

A: I don't know, and I don't think Muslims know.

Q: Six of the seven people you profiled are men. Did you have a hard time getting access to female American Muslims?

A: In fairness to my book, there are women who appear in other chapters. But overall, I did have a harder time getting women to sit down and have sustained, serious conversations with me. They were just shyer.

Q: Was there anything you came to admire or dislike about Islam or Muslims in the U.S.?

A: Certainly there were awkward moments, but the huge majority of the experience was positive. When I looked closely, I saw more of what is familiar than foreign. Particularly among immigrant Muslims, hearing their stories, what they want for their children -- you could have substituted them for my own relatives.

Q: Tell me about one of the awkward moments.

A: People would sometimes ask me if I worked for FBI, and when I said no, they didn't look like they believed me. I would try to joke my way out, saying, "Do you think the FBI would send someone who looks like me to your mosque?" I think (the FBI) could come up with a better undercover operative than a guy who looks like a Jew. I don't think I pass for a Pakistani immigrant.

PHOTO:

Paul Barrett is the author of "American Islam: The Struggle for the Soul of a Religion." For use with RNS-10-MINUTES, transmitted March 7, 2007. Religion News Service photo courtesy David Rudes.

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Wednesday News Digest

c. 2007 Religion News Service

Compromise Allows Return of Cross to William and Mary Chapel

(RNS) The bronze cross in the chapel at the College of William and Mary, whose removal caused controversy last fall, has been returned to the campus chapel in Williamsburg, Va., under a compromise announced Tuesday (March 6).

The Committee on Religion in a Public University unanimously agreed to place the altar cross in a "prominent, readily visible place" in the Wren Building chapel. It will be displayed in a glass case accompanied by a plaque explaining the Anglican roots of the college.

The cross would be allowed on the altar during appropriate religious services, according to a statement by the Board of Visitors and William and Mary President Gene R. Nichol.

"We hope that this policy regarding the display of the Wren cross will put this immediate controversy to rest," Alan J. Meese and James Livingston, co-chairs of the committee, said in a joint statement.

When the cross was removed last fall, critics accused the school of rejecting William and Mary's heritage. One donor rescinded a $12 million pledge because of the controversy, the Associated Press reported.

"We knew our short-term mission was to come up with a proposal that would allow this college to come together and move forward as a community. We are confident this recommendation accomplishes that goal," Meese and Livingston said.

Michael Powell, chairman of the Board of Visitors, said the controversy brought "further division among our broad university community" and called the division "unhealthy."

Nichol, in an interview with the Washington Post, said the decision "recognizes both the history and tradition of the chapel and works to make it more open and welcoming to people of other faiths." -- Melissa Stee

Survey: Three-quarters of Americans Believe Moral Values Have Weakened

WASHINGTON (RNS) Three-quarters of Americans believe moral values in America have weakened in the last 20 years, and almost half think they have significantly weakened, according to a survey released Wednesday (March 7) by the Media Research Center.

"Today, Americans in general continue to believe in classic virtues like thrift, charity and honesty, but in their personal lives don't necessarily practice those virtues," said L. Brent Bozell III, president of the Alexandria, Va.-based center.

"America is becoming increasingly situational in its ethics and in its morals."

The survey found that 74 percent of American adults said they believe moral values in the United States are weaker than they were two decades ago, while 48 percent said moral values were "much weaker."

The study was conducted by the Alexandria-based polling firm Fabrizio, McLaughlin & Associates and the center's Culture and Media Institute.

Sixty-eight percent of Americans surveyed said the media -- both entertainment and news -- have a detrimental effect on moral values. More specifically, 73 percent said entertainment media had a negative influence on moral values while 54 percent said the news media do.

Eighty-seven percent of Americans said they believe in God, while 36 percent agreed that people should always live by God's principles and teachings.

Seeking a specific example of American ethics, researchers asked respondents what they would do if a restaurant check arrived at their table with items missing from the bill; 70 percent said they would inform the waiter and pay the correct amount, while 25 percent said they would pay the smaller tab.

(OPTIONAL TRIM BEGINS)

The Culture and Media Institute said the survey shows that respondents could be categorized into three "values groups" -- Orthodox, who see moral issues in "black and white, right vs. wrong"; Progressives, who see moral issues in "shades of gray"; and Independents, who do not fully agree with the values of either Orthodox or Progressives. These categories were determined based on respondents' views on the role of religion in everyday life and not their political views, survey developers said.

(OPTIONAL TRIM ENDS)

The results were based on 1,000 surveys of American adults ages 18 and older by telephone and 1,000 surveys completed online in December. It had an overall margin of error of plus or minus 2.2 percentage points. -- Adelle M. Banks

Christian School Could Lose Contract Over Transgender Dispute

JACKSON, Mich. (RNS) A Michigan community college may sever contractual ties with a Christian college over its decision to fire a transgender professor.

Lansing Community College officials say Spring Arbor University's treatment of Julie Nemecek violates their nondiscrimination policy, which applies to students, faculty and organizations the school contracts with.

Spring Arbor is under contract to be one of eight schools to offer classes at LCC's new University Center in summer 2008.

An LCC spokeswoman said the college would wait to render a decision about Spring Arbor until after a mediation session between Spring Arbor and Nemecek. The former John Nemecek filed a gender discrimination complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

"We're going to see what comes of that to find out if any law was violated and then go from there," said LCC spokeswoman Tess Brown. "We have been asked by Spring Arbor to wait."

Spring Arbor spokesman Tim Johnston said he could not confirm whether such a discussion between officials from the two schools took place.

"We know that it's there, but it's just something (President Gayle) Beebe hasn't focused on," Johnston said of the Lansing college's diversity concerns.

Nemecek, 55, had been a professor at the Christian-based college for 16 years. When she announced she was transgender and would transition into a woman, officials docked her pay and reduced her responsibilities as associate dean of adult education.

Nemecek filed the federal complaint against the university for reducing her pay, making her work from home and banning her from appearing as a woman on campus. -- Chad Livengoo

d

Basketball, Beliefs Get Day in Court

(RNS) The Oregon Supreme Court on Monday (March 5) questioned whether the Oregon School Activities Association has done all it can to accommodate the religious beliefs of local Adventist basketball players.

During oral arguments in a packed lecture hall at Lewis & Clark College, justices questioned lawyers representing OSAA and students at Portland Adventist Academy about what standards should be established to accommodate students' beliefs, which include not playing on Saturdays.

The justices also wanted to know why OSAA hasn't enhanced its efforts to meet those needs during the state's annual basketball championships.

"What it looks like, frankly, in the record, is that you're not making any accommodations for this religious purpose but you're making accommodations ... for all sorts of secular purposes," Justice Thomas Balmer said to OSAA's attorney.

The court's ruling could take months, and the decision is anticipated beyond Oregon.

Monday's hearing focused on the wording of the state law prohibiting religious discrimination in education. Seventh-day Adventists observe the Sabbath from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday. Students at the school haven't played in the tournaments, when top-tier games often are held on Saturdays.

OSAA has not rescheduled tournament games because it said doing so is not in the best interests of fans, teams and the association.

Attorneys for OSAA and the Oregon Board of Education said the law is meant to ensure neutrality and should not provide special treatment for religious beliefs.

"I don't think you can conclude that because it's possible to accommodate -- albeit in a way that burdens others -- therefore you must accommodate to be reasonable," said Jonathan Radmacher, the attorney who represented OSAA.

Charles Hinkle, arguing the case on behalf of the students and the American Civil Liberties Union, told the justices that it is OSAA's obligation to meet the religious needs of students.

"If a reasonable accommodation can be made, then you almost draw the conclusion that, per se, it's unreasonable not to accommodate it," he said.

The debate began in 1996, when OSAA accommodated Portland Adventist students and they went on to win a state title. But OSAA changed its stance the next year, and the case went to U.S. District Court, where the school lost. The case later was filed in Oregon, and the state Court of Appeals has ruled in favor of the students twice. -- Brad Schmidt

Quote of the Day: Eastern Mennonite University President Loren Swartzendruber

(RNS) "We're a people who don't always talk a lot about our faith. But we do put it into action."

-- Eastern Mennonite University President Loren Swartzendruber, in response to the Mennonite churches who offered their homes and prayers to mourning families at Bluffton University after a bus crashed carrying Bluffton baseball players to a game against Eastern Mennonite University, killing six people. He was quoted by the Associated Press.

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To obtain a photo of this columnist, go to the RNS Web site at www.religionnews.com. On the lower right, click on "photos," then search by subject or slug

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COMMENTARY: Chasing Mary Magdalene

By PHYLLIS ZAGANO
c. 2007 Religion News Service

(UNDATED) Just when the world thought Mary Magdalene was fully explained in Dan Brown's far-fetched book "The Da Vinci Code," she's been dug up again, this time in Jerusalem's East Talpiot neighborhood by the Discovery Channel. They say 10 ossuaries (small limestone caskets) found in 1980 belonged to Jesus, Mary Magdalene and their supposed kin, both named and not named.

There was a BBC documentary about all this in 1996, but here we go again. The folks who are pressing these tales might try to sell you a bridge in Brooklyn soon. That is how questionable their "research" is.

Millions of folks tuned in to the so-called documentary "The Lost Tomb of Jesus" and learned a little about archaeology and a lot about how the Discovery Channel makes money. A lot of money.

The "Tomb" show has little to do with reality. It claims to be "historical and realistic" -- the new anti-religious code words -- in investigating the tomb's "discovery." The filmmakers were thrown out as soon as the authorities found their robotic cameras snooping about the burial site without permission.

The Israel Antiquities Authority cataloged the Jerusalem tomb of a middle-class first-century family 27 years ago, and scholars declared the ossuary names were coincidental. They said the tomb was not that of visiting Galileans in town for the high holy days, whose relative, Jesus, was brutally tortured and killed.

In many respects, the show hinges on Mary Magdalene, one of Jesus' closest disciples, here put forth as Jesus' wife. She was indeed a major player. Even Pope Benedict XVI calls her the "apostle to the apostles." But bad history once combined three Gospel Marys: Mary of Bethany, the sister of Martha and Lazarus; the unnamed penitent woman with the alabaster jar who anointed Jesus' feet; and Mary Magdalene, witness to the Resurrection. That may help explain why Mary Magdalene is already buried in at least three other places -- two in the South of France and one in modern-day Turkey -- and assuredly not in Jerusalem.

Mary Magdalene's supposed relics rest in two French churches. Those in the former Benedictine abbey church of Vezelay, in Burgundy, date to the ninth century. However, in 1279, Mary Magdalene's bones were found again at St. Maximin de Provence on the Cote d'Azur. The Dominican church there holds a reliquary with her -- or somebody's -- skull. One French legend has Mary going to Marseilles after Jesus' death, supposedly traveling with Lazarus and some companions who eventually converted the whole of Provence. But that would make her more likely Mary of Bethany. Others say her relics came to France from Turkey centuries later.

The Byzantine tradition says Mary Magdalene went to the commercial city of Ephesus (in modern-day Turkey) along with Mary, the mother of Jesus, and John, the beloved apostle. John wrote most of his gospel there, and it is said Mary Magdalene helped. They died at Ephesus toward the end of the first century.

Did they really go there? In the sixth century, Emperor Justinian built a basilica over St. John's tomb in Selcuk, near Ephesus. Not far away, the less-documented final abode of Jesus' mother, called the House of Meryemana -- Turkish for "Mother Mary" -- remains a place of pilgrimage. Mary Magdalene's relics were transferred from Ephesus to Constantinople in 899, but some argue they were brought to France in 745.

If you've lost track of whose bones are where by now, that is precisely the point. Legend blends with history because these people were neither powerful nor rich. Jesus' followers most probably got out of town as quickly as they could. But they were not Blackberry-wielding corporate types jetting around the Mediterranean from one beach to another. They were poor, simple outsiders, who left Jerusalem to write and tell of what they had seen and heard.

In other words, they had more important things to do than erecting elaborate tombs for themselves, in Jerusalem or elsewhere.

Did Mary Magdalene repair to the South of France after Jesus' death? Doubtful. Did she go to Turkey? Could be. Was she, in fact, the wife of Jesus? Hardly. The definitive answers are shrouded by the dark curtain of the ages. But no matter where Mary Magdalene and the others went after the Crucifixion, it is not likely they had a relatively fancy family tomb back in Jerusalem.

(Phyllis Zagano is senior research associate-in-residence at Hofstra University and author of several books in Catholic studies.)

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Editors: A version of this column originally appeared on Beliefnet (www.beliefnet.com). This article may be used by RNS clients, but please use the Beliefnet credit line.

To obtain a photo of this columnist, go to the RNS Web site at www.religionnews.com. On the lower right, click on "photos," then search by subject or slug.

GUEST COMMENTARY: Ted Haggard is 'Completely Sexual,' and So Are We

By PATTON DODD
c. 2007 Beliefnet

(UNDATED) "Ted Haggard Is Completely Sexual." Had that been the headline coming out of Colorado recently, it might have inspired a useful conversation. Instead, we're hearing the usual culture war battle cries.

Haggard was removed as pastor of New Life Church in Colorado Springs in November amid accusations of a three-year relationship with a male prostitute. Recently, a church overseer told the Denver Post that Haggard had begun counseling and determined he is "completely heterosexual."

The Associated Press headline -- "Haggard Now 'Completely Heterosexual'" -- suggested that Haggard's orientation had somehow been altered in counseling; neither Haggard nor the overseer said as much. A psychologist quoted in a New York Times story insinuated that Haggard's views on his orientation were not to be trusted because they are rooted in theology, not science.

The overseer's comment is subject to criticism, but the responses we've seen are beyond critical. They are reactionary, and unfair -- not only to Haggard, but to all of us who are burdened by the paucity of our culture's received wisdom on sexuality.

Haggard had an affair with a man. He also has a wife and five children. Those are all equal, neutral facts, but in our public conversation about Haggard, the facts of Haggard's marriage are overwhelmed by the fact of his extramarital sex life.

According to our cultural logic on sexuality, an affair with a male prostitute is the singular clue to Haggard's orientation; everything else is a cover-up. Why? Because the assumption is that when a straight man has gay sex, he must be gay. His orientation -- once hidden, now disclosed -- is absolute. Call it Hidden Absolute Gayness.

That logic, however, is a problem for both sides of the debate. It refuses to acknowledge the paradox of human experience. Humans act in myriad and inconsistent ways, we go astray from ourselves, we experiment with things that we wouldn't ordinarily consider a part of who we are. A husband who sleeps with another woman is no more revealing his inner polygamist than a straight man who experiences gay sex is revealing his inner homosexual.

Many people who defer to Hidden Absolute Gayness are expressing genuine compassion for men and women who might be living a lie. But Hidden Absolute Gayness assumes that sexuality identity is concrete, and that our job is to discover that inner concrete and build our lives upon it.

Hidden Absolute Gayness makes sexuality the essence of identity. In doing so, it denies spirituality and refuses to see sexuality as just one aspect of our physical and spiritual selves.

If we could look into our innermost being, we wouldn't find a switch flipped to "gay" or "straight." We'd discover a question -- Who am I? -- whose answer can be found only in relationship. That's why God, in Genesis, says, "Let us make mankind in our image." The relational (three-personed) God creates a man who is, in turn, relational. A few verses later, God declares that it is not good for the man to be alone.

As Andy Crouch wrote a few years ago in Christianity Today magazine, "Humankind is not divided into 'heterosexuals' and 'homosexuals.' Rather, we are 'sexuals,' people created for union with another, in the image of a relational God." People are not created to be straight or gay -- people are created to be in relationship.

Sadly, many Christians have accepted the view of people as either heterosexual or homosexual with little or nothing in between. Their view of sexuality is just like the view held by advocates of Hidden Absolute Gayness, with the additional step of believing that Gayness must be converted into Straightness. Such Christians exercise no more fairness -- no fuller grasp of the truth about sex -- than those on the other side of the cultural divide.

Can people repress desires? Sure, and such repression can be damaging. But people are damaged further by a sexuality paradigm that sees desire as the single most important clue to true identity, rather than as part of a complex of relational longing.

To put all this a different way: There is a lot about sexuality I do not understand, and neither do you. Our culture-wide conversation about sex isn't getting us anywhere because it is mired in delusional confidence. The truth is, we know far less than we admit.

(OPTIONAL TRIM FOLLOWS)

We're all sexual beings, and our sexuality is worked out as we inspect our lives, seek counsel, learn from others, and make an honest effort to grow into sexual expression that satisfies but also serves.

We're sexual. It's a truth that doesn't have the cozy clarity of always-gay or always-straight. It doesn't deliver pat answers, but provokes questions about the purpose and practice of sex. It is a truth rooted in mystery. But in its ambiguity, we find a better path to understanding sex.

(Patton Dodd was Ted Haggard's book editor and is now the Protestant editor at Beliefnet.)

PHOTO:

Patton Dodd is Ted Haggard's former book editor, and now Protestant editor at Beliefnet. For use with RNS-DODD-COLUMN, transmitted March 7, 2007. Religion News Service photo courtesy Patton Dodd.

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