Although widely panned by movie critics, The Da Vinci Code earned a staggering $224 million worldwide in its debut weekend, and a hefty $77 million in the U.S. It was the second largest worldwide release ever, topping all three installments of The Lord of the Rings trilogy and the Harry Potter films.
The controversial film is based on the Dan Brown novel of the same name, which sold 45 million hardback copies in the U.S. alone. Brown’s thriller depicts a Roman Catholic Church which has engaged in a 2,000-year-old cover-up of the “truth” about Jesus Christ: that He was not divine, did not die on the cross nor rise from the dead. Instead, he married Mary Magdalene and fathered a royal lineage extending to the present time.
Beyond the movie’s content, Ted Baehr, chairman of the Christian Film and Television Commission, was also troubled that The Da Vinci Code was financed by a British Muslim. According to The Associated Press, Baehr said at a Washington, D.C., press conference that Mohammed Yusef’s Invicta Capital financed most of Da Vinci’s $200 million price tag.
“I think it’s a very serious problem when people start funding movies and books to attack somebody else’s religious faith,” Baehr said.
Also controversial during the week prior to the film’s opening was a comment made by actor Ian McKellen, who plays a major character in The Da Vinci Code. According to the Media Research Center, McKellen, an open homosexual who has previously made public his disdain for Christianity, told NBC’s Matt Lauer that “the Bible should have a disclaimer in the front saying, this is fiction.”
For many Christians, the more important aspect of Brown’s book and the subsequent movie was whether or not the pop phenomenon would adversely affect people’s beliefs about Christianity.
An Opinion Research Business survey of Brits who had read Brown’s novel found that 60% believed the book’s claims about Jesus Christ. When it came to one of the novel’s negative statements about the Catholic Church, those who had read The Da Vinci Code were four times more likely to believe the claim than those who had not read it.
In the U.S., however, researcher George Barna found a different result. “Among the 45 million who have read The Da Vinci Code, only 5% – which represents about two million adults – said that they changed any of their beliefs or religious perspectives because of the book’s content,” Barna said.
He added, however, that two million adults are still a significant number. And young people who read the book or saw the movie, Barna warned, might have their beliefs more adversely affected, because they are still in the process of developing their religious values.
www.barna.org, 5/15/06; www.family.org, 5/17/06; www.mrc.org, 5/18/06; www.usatoday.com, 5/11/06, 5/19/06; AP, 5/18/06, 5/21/06; ; www.agapepress.org, 5/17/06, 5/22/06
Homes, churches ignore Potter influence
Over the last decade, Harry Potter, the child wizard from the imaginary world of author J.K. Rowling, has attracted a massive following of young Americans who have been influenced by his supernatural escapades.
A study conducted by the Barna Group, under the direction of David Kinnaman, found that exposure to the Harry Potter novels or films among young people has doubled in the last three years. “Currently, more than four out of every five teenagers (84%) have personally read or watched Potter. … [which includes] three-quarters of all church-going teens (77%) and born again Christian teenagers (78%)…,” the study said.
While the majority of teens found no spiritual stimulation but rather “fun-to-read” stories in the Potter books, 12% admitted that the contents of the books increased their curiosity in witchcraft. According to the study, “That translates to nearly three million young people whose interest has been piqued.” But Kinnaman also noted that many of these teens were already involved in some sort of witchcraft-related activity, reinforcing the fact that many are in desperate need of direction concerning spiritual matters.
For example, only 4% of teens claimed to have received any type of church teaching or discussions about the spiritual themes embedded in the series of novels and films. Specifically, only 13% of born again teens said they received input about Harry Potter from their churches.
In addition, “Only one-fifth of all teens and one-third of born again Christian teens said they had discussed the supernatural elements of Harry Potter with their parents,” the study stated. That means, Kinnaman said, that teens are processing the spiritual themes on their own or only with the help of their peers. “[W]hile the vast majority of teenagers and adolescents find entertainment in Potter, most Christian leaders and parents have responded by either condemning the series or ignoring it,” he said. “That response hasn’t worked because most teens will still consume the stories. … [Therefore], helping teens to respond Biblically to the messages of pop culture – such as those found in Harry Potter – is an important function of parents and church leaders.”
Additional information on the Barna research is found in a new 47-page resource titled “Ministry to Mosaics: Teens and the Supernatural.” It is available for purchase at www.barna.org.
www.barna.org, 5/1/06
CULTURE
Number of teen pregnancies dropping
The National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) reported recently that overall teen pregnancies have continued to fall every year since 1991. Meanwhile, pro-family groups are claiming that abstinence programs have played a substantial role in that reduction.
“Teen pregnancy rates dropped 27% overall during the decade 1990-2000,” the NCHS said, and have continued to fall this decade.
Even though secularists have attacked abstinence programs as being ineffective, Dr. Janice Crouse of Concerned Women for America said the abstinence approach works. “We’re seeing that teen pregnancies are down [and] abortions are down, so obviously teens are engaging in less sex than they have been previously.”
According to Crouse, highly touted national sex-ed programs, which promote a condom-based, “safer sex” approach, do not measure up in effectiveness, despite the massive funding behind them.
“It’s remarkable because the amount of money going to abstinence programs is one fourth of that that goes to the sex-ed programs,” she said. “[That’s] kind of a drop in the bucket when you look at the amount of money being used, and yet they appear to be tremendously more effective.”
Still, she said, the pro-abortion and sex-education industries are continuing to challenge the abstinence approach, even though pregnancies and abortions steadily rose until abstinence programs were widely introduced.
www.cdc.gov/nchs, 5/24/06; www.agapepress, 5/22/06
Sexually graphic books challenged in Idaho
Parents in an Idaho city have asked their local public library three times to remove from the shelves several sexually explicit books and place them out of the eyesight of children.
The library board has twice refused the requests, citing “the principle of freedom of information,” according to board chairwoman Sharon Brooks.
At least nine books, located in the nonfiction section of the Nampa Public Library, have been at the center of the controversy. Titles such as The New Joy of Sex, The Joy of Sex Toys and The Joy of Gay Sex have raised the hackles of parents, since children have free access to the explicit materials.
Nampa resident Randy Jackson filled out a complaint at the library and even addressed the library’s board of directors in January, but the board said the books would remain so that the needs of the whole community would be represented.
Jackson, who recently brought his concerns before the Nampa City Council, says parents are especially horrified with the book The Joy of Gay Sex.
“There’s a chapter entitled ‘Daddy-Son Sexual Fantasies’ where it talks about two people having sex while pretending that they’re father and son,” Jackson said. Another chapter in the book that he found disturbing teaches teens how to surf the Internet for homosexual sex – and then cover their tracks.
“They have a chapter titled ‘Teenagers,’” he said. “It explains to teenagers how they can go into online chat rooms on the Internet and how to meet people for sex in online chat rooms. It encourages them to learn to [delete] their Web browser history so their parents won’t be able to find out where they’ve been on the Internet.”
Nampa Mayor Tom Dale said in an e-mail to a town resident, “I will be working in the days before the next library board meeting to help the board understand that they do have broad authority in determining the books placed in the library collection, and their status therein. My preference would be for the books with explicit pictures, and particularly with chapters advocating breaking the laws of our state and nation, to be totally removed from the library. We do not need to provide them to anyone.”
www.ala.org, 5/19/06; www.agapepress, 5/22/06
Drug rehab ministry told to stop work
Officials in Osceola County, Florida, have told the leader of a men’s outreach organization that its headquarters can no longer be used for Christian meetings or discipleship, sparking a controversy and a lawsuit.
Men of Destiny Ministries, a self-described “Christian discipleship program” for men who struggle with alcohol and drug problems, operates out of a 6,300-square-foot home in Osceola County. Fourteen men live at the ministry headquarters, go out to work during the day and have Christian meetings at night.
The meetings are led by a pastor who encourages the men, teaches them about Christ, and helps them overcome various addictions and pursue wholeness. The spiritual regeneration process is designed to heal damage caused by their destructive behaviors.
Last month, however, the Osceola County Commission voted to shut down the ministry. Commission officials told Men of Destiny that the men in residence could continue to live in the home, but the faith-based aspect of the program and the Christian teaching going on there must stop. The county’s reason for imposing the restrictions is that the area is not zoned “to discuss drugs or to discuss church-related issues.”
Mat Staver, president of the pro-family legal organization Liberty Counsel, which has filed suit against Osceola County on behalf of the ministry, said the county’s actions are definitely unconstitutional. He said the county basically told the Men of Destiny program participants that “you can stay in this home and you can discuss anything else you want to, but you can’t talk about drugs, you can’t talk about a regeneration program, you can’t encourage your fellow housemate to stay drug-free, and you can’t open up the Bible to talk about religious instruction.”
In response to the lawsuit, a federal judge has already ruled that Men of Destiny can continue its ministry until the trial, which is set to begin in July.
www.lc.org, 5/9/06; www.agapepress,5/11/06, 5/22/06
EDUCATION
200 graduates include God in ceremony
A Kentucky school superintendent says he’s proud of the Russell County High School students who recited the Lord’s Prayer at their graduation ceremony in May.
Earlier in the day, a federal judge had banned prayers from the ceremony in response to a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) on behalf of a male student at the school. The student “did not feel that he should have to sit through government-sponsored prayer just to receive his diploma,” an ACLU attorney explained.
But during the principal’s opening graduation ceremony remarks, about 200 students prayed aloud, drawing thunderous applause and a standing ovation from the crowd.
According to The Associated Press, the “revival-like atmosphere” continued when graduate Megan Chapman shared during her opening remarks that God had guided her since childhood. Chapman, who said the challenge by the ACLU unified the entire senior class, was interrupted several times by cheering as she urged her classmates to trust in God as they go through life, AP said.
“More glory went to God because of something like that than if I had just simply said a prayer like I was supposed to,” Chapman said.
Superintendent Scott Pierce said the graduates showed that school had taught them how to make “compelling decisions on their own.” The students “exhibited what we’ve tried to accomplish in 12 years of education,” said Pierce, including teaching them to be “critical thinkers.”
www.wlextv.com, 5/20/06; www.agapepress, 5/22/06; www.family.org, 5/22/06
Kentucky education officials neutralize ‘Christ’
The Kentucky Board of Education came under fire for approving a more contemporary system of describing historical dates in its public school curriculum. One critic said he believed modernizing the system reveals a desire to conceal from students their culture’s Judeo-Christian heritage.
The state board of education voted to continue using the abbreviations B.C. for “Before Christ” and A.D. for “Anno Domini,” which is Latin for “in the Year of the Lord.” However, the board members decided to supplement the traditional dating method with a more secular approach: C.E. for “Common Era,” and B.C.E., which stands for “Before the Common Era.” Presumably, the new designations will be B.C./B.C.E. and A.D./C.E.
The board’s vote meant that the new dating system will appear throughout Kentucky’s curriculum as well as the other materials used by educators across the state. This method of describing historical eras is already being included in textbooks across the United States, especially on the college and university level.
The Family Foundation of Kentucky, a pro-family organization, was among those critical of the decision. The group’s senior policy analyst, Martin Cothran, said the new dating system comes out of a secularist mindset.
He also said his organization was concerned that the new measure might open the door for groups like the American Civil Liberties Union to find some liberal activist judge who would rule that schools’ use of B.C. and A.D. is unconstitutional, since those designations refer to Jesus Christ.
“Of course, it’s not fooling anybody,” Cothran said, “because we still say it’s 2006, whether it’s A.D. or C.E., but we’re just hiding the origin of that from our students.” And that is unfortunate, he added, because educators “shouldn’t be in the business of hiding things from our students. We should be in the business of revealing things to them.”
According to the pro-family advocate, nearly everybody in Kentucky, with the exception of the education establishment, is against adding the new dating system. Even Kentucky Governor Ernie Fletcher is among those opposing the move.
Cothran predicted that conservative parents and public officials will lead a successful effort to rescind the use of C.E. and B.C.E. in Kentucky’s public schools.
www.agapepress, 4/18/06
FAMILY
Considering their duties, moms deserve pay raise
A stay-at-home mom merits a salary equal to that of a major corporate executive, according to a recent analysis by Salary.com.
The Web site surveyed hundreds of stay-at-home and working mothers to determine the top 10 jobs that routinely fall within the job description of a mom.
In order of hours spent per week, the top job functions identified were housekeeper, day care center teacher, cook, computer operator, laundry machine operator, janitor, facilities manager, van driver, CEO and psychologist. Based on the survey, Salary.com said a mother’s fair compensation would be an annual salary of $134,121.
Even for working mothers, their value would add more than $85,000 to their annual salaries. The U.S. Census Bureau calculates that 5.6 million women are at home with children under age 15. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics says about 26 million women with children under age 18 work in the nation’s paid labor force.
www.agapepress, 5/4/06; Salary.com
PRO-LIFE
Support for abortion continues to decline
Support for Roe v. Wade, the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion on demand, has dipped to 49%, its lowest level ever.
The Harris Poll has tracked public response to the case since the high court decision. The Harris Web site said previous polls have shown support from 52% to 65%. The current survey of 1,016 U.S. adults was conducted in early April.
Forty-seven percent of respondents said they oppose the high court’s decision in this case. Nonetheless, the survey revealed that a majority (63%) of all respondents think it unlikely that this Supreme Court will overturn Roe v. Wade.
Harris findings say 55% of Democrats favor Roe v. Wade and 61% of Republicans oppose it. And while 49% of all Americans support legalized abortion, 40% said they favor laws making it more difficult for a woman to abort her baby.
While the numbers continue to shift toward a pro-life view, some were disappointed in the way the Harris poll worded the question. “The poll questions on support for Roe v. Wade were strongly misleading, suggesting the Supreme Court decision to legalize abortion was limited to first-trimester pregnancies, when in fact the decision opened the door to widespread abortion on demand throughout all nine months of pregnancy,” wrote Gudrun Schultz at Lifesite.net.
Despite the unclear Harris wording, it appears that Americans are growing more unhappy with abortion on demand.
www.lifesite.net, 5/10/06; www.harrisinteractive.com, 5/4/06
Illegal, botched abortion closes Alabama center
The Alabama Board of Health has suspended the license of Summit Medical Center in Birmingham, Alabama. Summit is one of three abortion mills in the state’s largest city. The board shut it down May 21 because of a botched chemical abortion on a nearly full-term baby.
Several things went wrong with the February 20 attempted abortion. First, the mother was mistakenly told she was only six weeks pregnant. Then the drug RU-486 was administered illegally by a nurse who later falsified paper work to indicate that a physician had been present. Six days later, the mother had complications and delivered a stillborn, six-pound, four-ounce baby at a city hospital.
Summit was cited by the state board in 2005 because its medical director had no permit for controlled-substances. After a Summit patient died, another Summit physician was suspended in 2004 for what the board of health called “repeated malpractice.”
Summit operates seven abortion mills in Alabama, Connecticut, Georgia, Michigan and Nevada. The corporate Web site boasts that Summit is one of the nation’s leading abortion providers and is “committed to excellence.”
The Alabama Board of Health report said the Birmingham clinic is guilty of “egregious lapses in care, including non-physicians performing abortions, severely underestimating the gestational age of a fetus, failure to appropriately refer or treat a patient with a dangerously elevated blood pressure, and performing an abortion on a late-term pregnancy.” The suspension was effective for 90-120 days, but a June 20 hearing would determine further action.
www.family.org. 5/22/06; Birmingham News, 5/21
Drug awakens patients from vegetative state
The politically correct rush to remove life support from comatose patients has suffered another blow as the result of new research. Three patients who were earlier declared in a permanent vegetative state have awakened after being treated with Zolpidem, an insomnia drug.
South African researchers Ralf Clauss and Wally Nel found that the drug restored consciousness in two auto accident victims and one near-drowning patient. All three had been in a vegetative state for three years.
Drs. Clauss and Nel published their findings earlier this year in the professional medical journal NeuroRehabilitation. They say the patients awakened to varying degrees, answered simple questions, watched television and responded to family members.
“For every damaged area of the brain, there is a dormant area which seems to be a sort of protective mechanism,” Dr. Clauss told the British Broadcasting Corporation. “The damaged tissue is dead, there’s nothing you can do. But it’s the dormant areas which wake up.”
Clauss now practices nuclear medicine in the United Kingdom and Nel is in family practice in South Africa.
www.lifesite.net, 5/24/06
RELIGION
School purges national motto from liberty nickel
Administrators at Liberty Elementary School in Colleyville, Texas, are on the hot seat for removing “In God We Trust” from the school’s depiction of the Liberty nickel. Colleyville is in the Keller Independent School District just west of the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex.
Officials chose the new nickel design to illustrate the school yearbook cover because the coin is embossed with the word “Liberty.” But principal Janet Travis and the board of the Parent Teachers Association decided the national motto should be purged from the large five-cent coin so people who did not believe in God wouldn’t be offended.
However, the decision to be politically correct apparently backfired. The Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported that school officials had received hundreds of complaints in addition to calls from national news media.
Travis’ public response in a letter to parents included: “Principals often have to make tough choices regarding issues that will fall short of pleasing all the parties involved. Please know that we meant no disrespect to any faith.” The Star-Telegram said Travis did not respond to a request for an interview.
www.dfw.com, 5/23/06
Virginia public schools shun Christian school
Eight Virginia school districts have been charged by Liberty Counsel with what is being called an illegal boycott against Liberty Christian Academy (LCA) in Lynchburg. The move by the public schools to shun the Christian school would evidently have tremendous negative impact on student athletes, athletic department budgets and even on a local children’s charity.
Liberty Counsel founder Mathew D. Staver said, “These school districts must immediately cease their unlawful actions and work together for the good of the community. Personal bias or fear of competition should not be used to hurt children. Liberty Christian Academy intends to right these wrongs, preferably with an amicable resolution, but if necessary, by legal recourse.”
For 30 years, LCA, founded by Jerry Falwell and Thomas Road Baptist Church, has engaged in sports competitions, off-season practice competitions and training camps with student athletes from eight neighboring school districts.
LCA won the state football championship in 2004 and 2005. This year, the LCA girls’ volleyball team won the state championship, and the basketball team was state runner-up.
The LCA athletic director has been informed by all eight school districts that LCA players may no longer participate in the training camp, and they may no longer play in any open leagues for any sport. Furthermore, LCA has been dropped from the schedule of every sport in every high school in these districts.
In addition, the annual Beacon Basketball Classic, a December tip-off tournament for area high school teams, is suffering. Three past participating high schools say they won’t be back because of the other public schools’ boycott of LCA. The Beacon Classic raises money for the local Children’s Miracle Network charity.
“It is sad when athletic directors illegally conspire to injure a Christian academy, its students and other charitable programs,” said Staver.
Liberty Counsel Alert, 5/16/06; www.agapepress, 5/18/06
Episcopalians reject gay bishop candidates
The leader of New Hampshire’s Episcopal diocese remains the denomination’s only openly homosexual bishop after three homosexual candidates in California failed to win election there.
Delegates from the Episcopal Diocese of California gathered in May to pick their next bishop from a field of seven candidates, three of whom were homosexual. However, the diocese chose the Right Rev. Mark Handley Andrus of Birmingham, Alabama, who is married and has two college-age daughters.
The Associated Press said the election of another homosexual bishop could have inflamed tensions within the worldwide Anglican Communion, where some leaders remain angry at the 2003 consecration of Rev. Gene Robinson as bishop of New Hampshire. Robinson is an unrepentant, practicing homosexual who left his wife and children and now lives with his male partner.
“The vote was closely watched by Episcopalians across the nation and their fellow Anglicans worldwide. The church has been struggling to remain unified despite deep differences over gay clergy,” said AP’s Kim Curtis.
The 2.4-million-member Episcopal Church U.S.A. is the U.S. branch of the Anglican Communion, which counts 77 million people as members worldwide.
Outside the U.S., Canada and Europe, most Anglicans are doctrinally conservative and view homosexuality as a disqualification for ordination. The church’s leaders throughout Africa, Asia and Latin America were irate after the Episcopal Church decision to consecrate Robinson, and they have called on the U.S. branch to formally repent for its actions.
Conservative Anglican leaders had also asked the Episcopal Church to place a moratorium on electing more gay bishops. When the California diocese nominated three gay candidates for the open bishopric, the Anglican Communion was further threatened with schism.
Meanwhile, the search for a new bishop for the Episcopal Diocese of Tennessee will start anew after 203 delegates could not reach a consensus on four candidates in early May.
A spokesman for the diocese says it is unlikely a successor for retiring bishop, the Right Rev. Bertram Herlong, will be in place when he leaves in October. After 36 ballots, the Rev. James Magness of the Diocese of Kentucky and the Rev. Canon Neal Michell of the Diocese of Dallas had received the most votes.
The search process took 18 months, and delegates failed to elect a candidate during two previous conventions in March. Delegates have said the divide reflects deep national disagreements over the future direction of the church.
www.agapepress, 5/8/06; AP, 5/7/06
Homes, churches ignore Potter influence
Oregon student newspaper blasphemes Jesus
AFA groups thank furniture company
Number of teen pregnancies dropping
Sexually graphic books challenged in Idaho
Drug rehab ministry told to stop work
200 graduates include God in ceremony
Kentucky education officials neutralize ‘Christ’
Considering their duties, moms deserve pay raise
Support for abortion continues to decline
Illegal, botched abortion closes Alabama center
Drug awakens patients from vegetative state
School purges national motto from liberty nickel
