To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - The Stones Cry Out: Archeology Bears Witness To The Gospels
From: bpr-list@philologos.org("Shophar_Sho_Good")
Date: Thu, 23 Mar 2000 07:47:42 -0500

The Stones Cry Out: Archeology Bears Witness To The Gospels
By Charles Colson

CNS Commentary from BreakPoint <http://www.breakpoint.org>

22 March, 2000

A few years ago, people exploring the caves around
Jerusalem made the discovery of a lifetime: an ancient
burial site containing the remains of a crucified man.

The find was only one in a series that have overturned a
century-old consensus which held that the gospels are
almost entirely proclamation, with little, if any, real
history.

It turns out the remains belonged to a man who had been
crucified in the first century A.D. As Jeffrey Sheler
writes in his book "Is The Bible True?", the skeleton
confirms what the evangelists wrote about Jesus' death and
burial in several important ways.

-- more --

http://www.conservativenews.org/ViewReligion.asp?
Page=/Religion/archive/REL20000322c.html

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To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - ReligionToday News Summary for Thursday, March 23, 2000
From: bpr-list@philologos.org
Date: Thu, 23 Mar 2000 08:59:32 -0500

------- Forwarded message follows -------

          C U R R E N T N E W S S U M M A R Y
              by the Editors of ReligionToday

March 23, 2000

Students can't escape paying fees to groups they don't like, such as
gay-rights organizations, at public colleges that charge mandatory
fees (see link #1 below), the U.S. Supreme Court ruled March 22. The
case involved Scott Southworth and other former University of
Wisconsin students who sued the school in 1996, complaining about
having to pay fees that fund campus extracurricular groups, including
the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Center and the
International Socialist Organization. ..."As a conservative and a
Christian, it was frustrating to see the money going to organizations
I personally disagree with," Southworth said. "Students have a First
Amendment right not to speak," said Jordan Lorence, Southworth's
attorney. ...The high court ruled that mandatory fees at public
colleges and universities do not violate any student's free-speech
rights, but instead promote the university's goal to "facilitate a
wide range of speech," Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote. ...Christian
students at several other colleges had sued their schools over similar
fees, and if the court had ruled the other way the fee-collection
system across the United States would have had to be altered or
discarded, observers said. The ruling does not affect private schools.

A physicist who says science and religion should work
hand-in-hand has won this year's Templeton Prize (see link #2
below) for Progress in Religion. It is worth $948,000.
..."We ought to take advantage of religion to make science
something we can be proud of," said award winner Freeman Dyson,
76. He is professor emeritus at the Institute for Advanced Study
in Princeton, N.J
...Science can improve life, but a spiritual and ethical
worldview "has at least an equal claim to authority in defining
human destiny," Dyson said. Science and religion "are two windows that
people look through, trying to understand the big universe outside,
trying to understand why we are here. The two windows give different
views, but both look out at the same universe. Both views are
one-sided, neither is complete. Both leave out essential features of
the real world. And both are worthy of respect." ...Dyson wants
science and religion to counteract the gap between rich and poor, and
to address dangers in biotechnology and human engineering. In the
future, the rich could control a commerce in desirable human genes to
give offspring "all kinds of competitive skills," he told The
Associated Press. ...Dyson calls himself a "follower of Christ," but
thinks of religion as a "way of life, not a belief," he said. "I'm not
a saint or a theologian, and I always thought you had to be one or the
other [to win the Templeton]," he told Ecumenical News International.
He occasionally attends a Presbyterian church in Princeton, and his
daughter is an ordained Presbyterian minister in Maine. ...Templeton
prizes have gone to scholars and activists. Evangelist Billy Graham,
Russian writer Alexander Solzhenitsyn, and Mother Teresa are among
winners of the prize, given annually by the John Templeton Foundation.
Dyson will be awarded the prize May 9 by Prince Philip of Great
Britain, and another ceremony will take place May 16 at the National
Cathedral in Washington, D.C. The prize money may be spent however the
winner wishes; Dyson said had no idea yet what he will do with it.

The Palestinian people deserve a homeland, John Paul II said. He
made the statement March 21 in Manger Square in Bethlehem, where
he said Mass during his tour of the Holy Land, Reuters said. Upon the
pontiff's arrival in Bethlehem, a boy and girl offered him a bowl of
earth, which he kissed ...Yasser Arafat greeted the pope. The
Palestinian Authority leader has said his group will declare Palestine
to be an independent state by the end of the year regardless of
Israel's approval. John Paul said Palestinians have suffered too long,
and have "the natural right to a homeland and the right to live in
peace and tranquillity with the other peoples of this area." ...John
Paul called on Christians who live in the Holy Land not to leave. "Do
not be afraid to preserve your Christian presence and heritage in the
very place where the Savior was born," he told the crowd of 10,000.
The Christian population has decreased dramatically in the past
century to about 2%, Reuters said. Most of the population is Muslim.

Police raised the estimated death toll for last week's cult
suicides in Uganda (see link #3 below) to 530. The victims
included at least 78 children whose deaths were being treated as
murders, but an exact toll might never be known, they said.
Hundreds of charred corpses were bulldozed into a mass grave this
week. ...There are several theories on how and why the cult members
set the fire in their church. Relatives of the dead said they doubted
if all the members of the Movement for the Restoration of the Ten
Commandments of God were willing participants in the fire, Reuters
said. Six bodies were pulled from a pit latrine in the church
compound, and doctor said they appeared to have been murdered. ...The
group did not allow any medication for illness, only prayers, a report
said. Relatives and former members said leaders did not allow sexual
relations, and forced members into hard labor without payment.
...Cults are not a widespread problem in other parts of the continent,
Africa expert Timothy Gyuse told Religion Today. "I am not aware of
any other mass suicide on the continent or of a widespread problem of
deadly cults," he said. Gyuse, a former Campus Crusade for Christ
director in Nigeria and West Africa and a former senior fellow at a
Nigerian think tank, has traveled extensively in Africa.

Ugandan church leaders won a battle against pornography. Three
magazines that featured nudity and other sexual content have gone out
of business since pastors started preaching against pornography two
months ago, Newsroom said. ...Roman Catholic and Pentecostal leaders
put aside their differences to work against the pornographers,
Newsroom said. They tried to meet with the publishers, but were told
to preach to their own people and leave the magazines alone, it said.
When the clergymen began urging their flocks not to buy or read the
magazines, sales dropped dramatically. ...One publisher became a
Christian and apologized for corrupting young people. One publisher
said the preachers' efforts had nothing to do with his downfall, but
others admitted the preaching hurt sales. "More than anything, the
continued attack on magazines by the clergy scared many would-be
readers," publisher Wairagala Wakabi said.

-----------
RELATED LINKS:
1:
http://www.religiontoday.com/Archive/FeatureStory/view.cgi?file=199911
09.s1.html 2: http://www.templetonprize.org/ 3:
http://www.religiontoday.com/Archive/FeatureStory/view.cgi?file=200003
21.s1.html

-----------
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Content may be reproduced provided proper credit is
given to religiontoday.crosswalk.com. Please go to
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To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Clothes fit for a Pope
From: bpr-list@philologos.org("Shophar_Sho_Good")
Date: Thu, 23 Mar 2000 15:29:03 -0500

Clothes fit for a Pope

http://www3.haaretz.co.il/eng/htmls/kat9_4.htm

In the Catholic Church, only the Pope wears white. Below is a
description
of a few items of clothing that he wears for rituals and various
occasions
By Saguy Green

White is his color. The significance, definition and distribution of
colors within the Catholic Church in the modern age was determined by
Pope
Innocent III in 1198. In his book "De Sacro Altaris Mysterio," he
determined that white and gold symbolize purity, joy and spiritual
elevation. In the Catholic Church, just the pope wears only white -
at all
times and places.Up until the fourth century, there was no separation
through dress between the priesthood and simple believers. But after
the
hordes of barbarians invaded the Roman Empire, the clergy's manner of
dress changed. Some of their items of clothing represent the position
of
their wearer in the Catholic Church hierarchy, while others are used
by
all functionaries.

Clerical dress has been shaped over hundreds of years, and the changes
introduced in it stemmed from social, cultural and economic reasons.
The
Pope of course has dozens of items of clothing for various rituals and
occasions. Here are a few of them:

The long white alb is belted with a white belt. Priests wear the alb
daily
and for rituals and prayer. The Pope often wears an alb of shiny white
silk with the symbol of the Vatican embroidered in golden thread.

The linen amice is worn around the neck and shoulders, partly
concealing
the alb.

The scarf is the item of dress with perhaps the greatest symbolic
significance. It represents the judicial authority of the Holy See.
The
Pope gives it to the archbishops, who give it to the bishops. The
papal
scarf is white and simple, and is cinched with the belt of the alb.

The chasuble is the primary ritual garment of priests, bishops and the
Pope. It is a long, sleeveless, poncho-like garment, closed on all
sides
and with a round opening for the head, whose color reflects the
wearer's
position in the Church hierarchy. It is worn over the alb and the
scarf.

The dalmatic, like the chasuble, is also used for festive ceremonies
and
prayers. Here too, the color represents the wearer's status. The
dalmatic,
unlike the chasuble, has wide sleeves.

The zuchetto is a round, close-fitting cap. The Pope wears one of
white,
glossy silk, with a tiny tab in the center. Gloves are optional for
the
Pope, whether he is leading the ritual or merely participating in it.

A gold cross, about 15 cm. long, hangs from the Pope's neck on a gold
chain. The Pope wears it on his chest, over his clothes, visible to
all.

The miter is a very tall cap with a top bearing a deep crosswise
cleft. It
looks like two triangles that are joined together to form the space
for
the head. The outline of the front and back resemble a pointed arch.
The
celebrant wears an ornately decorated miter with orphreys, rich gold
embroidery, while participants wear the miter simplex. The miter is
constructed of layers of damask silk. The Pope's ornate miter is
completely golden.

The episcopal ring is worn only by the Pope, as a seal and symbol of
his
exclusive power. The Pope wears it on the ring finger of his right
hand,
and it is melted down after his death.

The papal staff is a truly new item, introduced during the reign of
Pope
Paul VI (1978). The silver staff is over a meter long and is topped
with a
crucifix.

The pallium is a narrow, ringlike band of thin wool that rests on the
shoulders, with two dependent bands or lappets, one in front and one
behind. Small black crosses are woven into the fabric, and the
garment is
fastened to the alb with pins. Only archbishops, patriarchs and the
Pope
wear it, as a symbol of sovereignty.

The papal tiara is an elliptical hat consisting of three coronets on
top
of which is an orb and a cross, which symbolize the authorities of the
Pope: the papacy, the authority of order, the authority of government
and
the priestly authority. No Pope since John XXII (1963) has used the
tiara;
and no Pope since Paul VI (1978) was ordained with it.

Shoes are Doc Martens. The American magazine Catholic Digest reported
that
four years ago the Vatican ordered two pairs of high, black shoes and
two
pairs of low white shoes from the company, all in the Pope's shoe size
(36). The Vatican spokesman told the magazine that anyone can wear Doc
Marterns, not only young or unusual people.

And with regard to what is under the alb - we will probably never
know.

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To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Can The Dalai Lama Save Us From Frankenstein?
From: bpr-list@philologos.org("Shophar_Sho_Good")
Date: Thu, 23 Mar 2000 15:34:08 -0500

FROM:
This is your InternetWeek Newsletter
for today, Thursday, March 23, 2000.

http://www.internetwk.com

Bill Frezza:
Can The Dalai Lama Save Us From Frankenstein?

Primal fear is a powerful thing. The nightmare of man
being destroyed by his own creation, captured so eloquently
by Mary Shelley, lurks beneath the surface of Western
culture, ready to emerge each time a potent new technology
comes to life. It erupted again this month in a widely
hyped Wired magazine article written by Sun Microsystems
chief scientist Bill Joy, titled "Why The Future Doesn't
Need Us."

Warning that advances in robotics, genetic engineering and
nanotechnology threaten to make humans an endangered
species, Bill succumbs to the dystopian anxieties of pop
philosophers Hans Moravec, Ray Kurzweil and Ted "Unabomber"
Kaczynski. Arguing that intelligent, self-replicating
machines are but a few decades away and that these machines
are bound to declare war on man, Bill opines that the only
hope for survival is to suppress the commercial pursuit of
these technologies while seeking spiritual guidance in the
teachings of the Dalai Lama.

Wake up, Bill, it's just a bad dream. Your fears are
overblown, and the solutions you propose are far worse than
the disease.

Have a little confidence in the durability of man. You
state that "this is the first moment in the history of our
planet when any species, by its own voluntary actions, has
become a danger to itself as well as to a vast number of
others." Nonsense. We've been a danger to ourselves and
others for 10,000 years. Evolution has never created a
meaner killing machine.

Compared to us, Tyrannosaurus rex was a piker. I guarantee
you that if you let a T-rex loose in the Bronx, it would be
dead in two hours. Not only that, but within a week, street
vendors in Manhattan would be selling T-rex-skin shoes and
pocketbooks.

But evil machines could be microscopic and just as deadly,
you argue. So what else is new? We hunted the smallpox
virus down to the ends of the earth. Heck, we hunted the
passenger pigeon into extinction, and its only crime was
that its "uncontrolled replication" was annoying. The No. 1
criterion for survival of creatures on our planet today is
usefulness to man. This will hold just as true for robots
as it does for Panda bears.

But accidents happen, you say, and they will happen again.
Of course. We use a machine in our daily lives that kills
40,000 Americans a year. Anyone want to give up the car?
Would we be better off if automobile research had been
suppressed?

Perhaps you're worried about the horror of death on a
larger scale. Would this be unprecedented? Not at all.
Communism, a global experiment in state-mandated altruism,
tried to create a worker's paradise. Instead, it killed 100
million people. Yet mankind avoided extinction, and some
college professors even teach that we should try it again.
If we can survive this kind of insanity, we can survive
anything.

For the sake of argument, let's say that you're right and
the threat is real. You complain that we are "being
propelled into this new century with no plan, no control
and no brakes." But this lack of central planning is
precisely our best defense! Creating a worldwide thought
police with draconian enforcement powers, centralizing all
research in secret government labs and devising
surveillance methods capable of sniffing out unauthorized
technology developments wherever they occur is the worst
possible thing you can do if you want to make sure there
are sufficient resources ready to stamp the monsters out if
one ever gets loose.

Think about it in practical terms. All the powers the most
successful democracy on Earth can muster can't stop a
simple weed from being imported by the ton for the
amusement of people who just want to catch a buzz once in a
while. What kind of global police state do you have in mind
that can stop worldwide scientific progress in fields that
promise to cure cancer, defeat old age, eliminate famine
and help us travel to the stars? How will we decide what is
acceptable and unacceptable, and who is going to be in
charge of the master plan? Al Gore?

Bill, how have you so thoroughly lost your way?

You may be willing to surrender your freedom and spend the
rest of your life contemplating your navel under Big
Brother's watchful eye, but given the choice, I'd rather
live in a world that has to fight malignant, self-
replicating robots once in a while. Bring them on. They
will only make us stronger.

Bill Frezza is a general partner at Adams Capital
Management. He can be reached at mailto:frezza@alum.MIT.EDU
or www.acm.com.

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