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Evangelical Christian, disability advocate Joni Eareckson Tada talks about cancer diagnosis, suffering

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From www.religionnews.com

Relgion News Service offers this Q&A with Joni Eareckson Tada:

Disability advocate Joni Eareckson Tada, long known as an evangelical icon and a wheelchair-bound quadriplegic who paints with a brush between her teeth, has faced a range of challenges since a diving accident left her paralyzed in 1967.

Now she’s facing another: breast cancer.

Tada, who turns 61 on Oct. 15, is undergoing chemotherapy and recently completed a new book, “A Place of Healing: Wrestling with the Mysteries of Suffering, Pain, and God’s Sovereignty.” Some answers have been edited for length and clarity.

Q: You have gone through a number of medical challenges—quadriplegia, chronic pain, and now breast cancer. What are some basic lessons you have learned about suffering?

A: It’s good not to simply resign yourself to it. It’s also good not to submit or yield to it with its overtones of `Oh, poor me. I give up. I give in” and not even coping or adjusting.

Read the full Q&A: http://www.religionnews.com/index.php?/tenminutes/10_minutes_with_joni_eareckson_tada1/

Ballet Magnificat! coming to Bethel Church in Fargo

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Ballet Magnificat! tells the story of the Israelites’ deliverance from bondage in Egypt through dance in their production of “Deliver Us!” It also offers a “glimpse of another deliverer: Jesus Christ.”

The performance is 7 p.m. Oct. 10 at Bethel Church, 2702 30th Ave. S. in Fargo. Tickets are $10. Children 5 and under are admitted free.

For more information, call (701) 232-4476.

Editor of ELCA magazine “The Lutheran” says magazine won’t give NALC “any special coverage just because of its heritage. This group, like Elvis, has left the building”

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Daniel J. Lehmann

In the current issue of “The Lutheran,” an ELCA publication, its editor Daniel Lehmann writes:

“Page 8 of this issue contains a 203-word article (“Another Lutheran body formed“) on the founding of another Lutheran denomination. No more, no less.

The North American Lutheran Church came about in response to the 2009 ELCA Churchwide Assembly decisions on sexuality…

“What we have here is a classic case of schism — a formal division or separation in the Christian church …

“So now the NALC becomes, in the eyes of this magazine, one more Lutheran denomination. Just as the staff follows major events in the life of the LCMS, the same will be true with the NALC. The Lutheran won’t give it any special coverage just because of its heritage. This group, like Elvis, has left the building.”

Read the full editorial: http://www.thelutheran.com/article/article.cfm?article_id=9348

Red River Women’s Clinic draws dueling demonstrations

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PHoto by David Samson / The Forum

Hundreds of people marched quietly through downtown Fargo in a procession Sunday behind a statue of the Virgin Mary and a cross in a “Walk with Christ for Life.”

The Eucharistic procession, led by Bishop Samuel Aquila, began after a Mass at the Cathedral of St. Mary and paused in front of the Red River Women’s Clinic, North Dakota’s only abortion provider.

In front of the clinic, a group of pro-choice supporters staged their own service, as the two opposing sides over abortion recited their prayers in peaceful but determined defiance of one another.

Read the full Forum story: http://www.inforum.com/event/article/id/292687/

Talk about it: http://topics.areavoices.com/2010/09/26/red-river-womens-clinic-draws-dueling-demonstrations/

Fargo clinic scenes a window on abortion debate

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Pastor Dave Motta leads prayers

The 40 Days for Life anti-abortion campaign began yesterday (Wednesday). The North Dakota part of that campaign includes a 40-day, non-stop prayer vigil at the Red River Women’s Clinic in Fargo. Here’s an expert from the Forum’s story on the first day of the protest:

“JL Beers serves burgers and brews next door.

“Cars roll past it down First Avenue North.

“And everyday life swirls around the Red River Women’s Clinic in downtown Fargo as if unaware of the profound ideological collision happening on the sidewalk.

“As they do most days of the year, protesters gathered outside North Dakota’s only abortion facility on Wednesday. But the morning’s collection of about 100 people marked the first in a 40-day, nonstop prayer vigil that is part of the international 40 Days for Life campaign against abortion.”

Read the full story: http://www.inforum.com/event/article/id/292163/

Fargo-Moorhead Muslims want new mosque and community center

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Imam Sharip-Hashim Hassan leads prayer Monday in Fargo’s Islamic Center.

From a story in today’s Forum:

As passionate voices continue to wrangle over the planned mosque near the site where the World Trade Center towers fell, Muslims in Fargo-Moorhead are contemplating an expansion of their own in a more serene setting.

Friday gatherings at the Fargo mosque are already crowded, said Ahmer Qarni, who has twice served as president of the mosque. But the larger mosque and community center facilities they’d like to have will have to wait.

Read the full story: http://www.inforum.com/event/article/id/291894/

Bishop Mark Hanson’s ‘town hall’ touches on issues ranging from human sexuality to evangelism to relationships with Muslims

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Mark Hanson, bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, spoke about a range of issues such as sexuality, mission funding, Christianity and relationships with the Muslim world.

Read the ELCA press release on the town hall at: http://www.elca.org/Who-We-Are/Our-Three-Expressions/Churchwide-Organization/Communication-Services/News/Releases.aspx?a=4639

I’ll post a link to the video when it’s up, which should be Wednesday.

Star-Tribune: Three lesbian pastors from Twin Cities welcomed as ELCA clergy

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“Three pastors from the Twin Cities who are lesbians in committed relationships were embraced Saturday as Evangelical Lutheran Church in America pastors. The Reverends Anita Hill, Ruth Frost and Phyllis Zillhart were inducted during a service presided over by St. Paul Bishop Peter Rogness at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church of the Redeemer,” the Minneapolis Star-Tribune reports.

In 2009, the ELCA voted at its biannual Churchwide Assembly to allow individuals in committed same-gender relationships to serve in the clergy. Hundreds of congregations in the ELCA have explored the possibility of exiting the denominations in the wake of the assembly. The ELCA has at more than 10,0o0 congregations.

Read the full story: http://www.startribune.com/lifestyle/faith/103204234.html?elr=KArksLckD8EQDUoaEyqyP4O:DW3ckUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aUac8HEaDiaMDCinchO7DUs

Read the ELCA press release: http://www.elca.org/Who-We-Are/Our-Three-Expressions/Churchwide-Organization/Communication-Services/News/Releases.aspx?a=4638

In first visit to Britain, Pope criticizes church’s handling of sexual abuse

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From www.bloomberg.com (David Cheskin - WPA Pool/Getty Images)

In his current visit to Britian Pope Benedict XVI criticized the Catholic Church for its response to sexual abuse by priests. He said it had not been “sufficiently vigilant” or “sufficiently swift and decisive.”

The New York Times reports: “Asked how the church could restore the faith of those shaken by the revelations of widespread priestly abuse, the pope said: ‘The first interest is the victims’ and the church needed to determine ‘how can we repair, what can we do to help them to overcome the trauma, to re-find their lives.’ He also said that priests who are guilty of abuse had a ‘sickness’ and needed to be kept away from children.”

Pope Benedict arrived in Britain today for a four-day stay. It’s the first Papal visit to Britain since 1982 when Pope John Paul II visited.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/17/world/europe/17pope.html?_r=1&hp=&adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1284647350-L4nrIVBPXQRP5rCjX9Nngw

Read even more at: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-09-16/pope-criticizes-church-s-sex-abuse-response-at-start-of-first-u-k-visit.html

NPR: Secretary of Defense called Florida pastor Terry Jones

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Defense Secretary Robert Gates

The Pentagon’s press secretary says that Secretary of Defense Robert Gates called Florida pastor Terry Jones and “urged the Pastor not to proceed with it,” NPR reports.

Press secretary Geoff Morrell released the following in a statement: “Secretary Gates reached out to Pastor Jones this afternoon. They had a very brief phone conversation during which the Secretary expressed his grave concern that going forward with the Quran burning would put at risk the lives of our forces around the world, especially those in Iraq and Afghanistan, and he urged the Pastor not to proceed with it.”

Jones was spearheading a protest in which copies of the Quran, Islam’s holiest text, would have been burned on Sept. 11. He has since canceled that protest.

See the full NPR post: http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2010/09/09/129760129/terry-jones-got-call-from-defense-secretary-gates?ft=1&f=103943429&sc=tw&utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

Here’s a story on The Forum’s website if you want to know more about the Quran-burning controversial in general and today’s news: http://www.inforum.com/event/article/id/290567/