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BibleBeltBlogger

Religion editor Frank Lockwood's spirituality blog

Rosary beads, Dodge Charger foil suicide attemptSeptember 1

A 22-year-old New York Man has quite a story to tell. He jumped out of a high rise building, plummeted 39 stories, reached speeds of above 125 miles per hour — and lived to tell about it.

Who deserves credit? An American made car? Or a rosary? Details here.

In Madrid, Moses Has HornsSeptember 1

I was visiting one of Madrid’s great museums back in February 2005 and came upon a painting of Moses the Law Giver. As I recall, he was holding the Ten Commandments and sprouting horns.

Yes. Horns.

The painting, which was hundreds of years old, really puzzled me. [This isn't the painting I saw, but it'll do.]

The Madrid painting seemed awfully anti-Semitic — even by 15th century Spanish standards. I asked around and nobody at the museum could explain why Moses had horns.

The painting continued to mystify me. Until today. Reading Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years, by Diarmaid MacCulloch, I learned how Moses got his horns. Apparently, St. Jerome gave them to him.

The translator of the Vulgate version of the Bible misinterpreted a Hebrew word in the book of Exodus. Instead of saying that Moses’ face “shone” after his descent from Mt. Sinai, the Vulgate said that Moses’ face “had horns.”

Mystery solved.

(The Jewish Encyclopedia offers more details.)

Changes at papers owned by Mormon Church, Rev. MoonSeptember 1

Two of the three largest newspapers affiliated with religious organizations, the (Salt Lake) Deseret News and the Washington Times, appeared to be making sweeping changes this week.

The Deseret News, owned by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, announced that it is cutting its staff roughly in half.

Half a continent away, there were reports that the Washington Times will be sold to investors loyal to the Rev. Sun Myung Moon — for one dollar. [The group of Moon associates currently running the paper were apparently unwilling to keep subsidizing it in perpetuity.]

Meanwhile, in Boston, the daily Christian Science Monitor has transitioned from print to the internet.

A question I’ve been pondering — the U.S. doesn’t have a Catholic paper, a Southern Baptist paper or a United Methodist paper. Why didn’t the nation’s largest religious bodies failed to build daily newspapers of their own?

A second question — The Mormon Church, as far as I can tell, is one of the most successful institutions in America numerically and financially. Why would it make such sharp cuts to its paper when the church, itself, appears to be flourishing?

Should Pentecostals rethink stand on alcohol?August 31

Pentecostal and holiness churches went against the cultural tides when they opposed cigarette smoking throughout the 20th century.

Early on, the military was promoting cigarettes. So was Congress and Hollywood, Madison Avenue and (of course) Big Tobacco. But Pentecostals held their ground — and were eventually vindicated.

Pentecostals argued that smoking was a nasty, disgusting, filthy habit (all true, of course) and that it defiled the temple of the Holy Ghost. But that isn’t why they carried the day. They won the war on tobacco because of science and the surgeon general.

Cigarettes caused cancer. Period. Game, set, match.

While Pentecostals carried the day on cigarettes, they’ve been less successful when it comes to alcohol. And in this battle, science could be their adversary instead of their ally.

Time magazine’s headline says it all: Heavy Drinkers Outlive Nondrinkers, Study Finds. Here’s a couple of paragraphs from the Time article:

“The sample of those who were studied included individuals between ages 55 and 65 who had had any kind of outpatient care in the previous three years. The 1,824 participants were followed for 20 years. One drawback of the sample: a disproportionate number, 63%, were men. Just over 69% of the never-drinkers died during the 20 years, 60% of the heavy drinkers died and only 41% of moderate drinker

520 pages down…August 30

I am reading Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years, by Diarmaid MacCullouch, and I’m struggling to get through it. It’s just so darned….lengthy.

Longer than the Bible long. (An exaggeration, but just barely.)
Longer than the New Testament long.

Don’t get me wrong. It’s a “triumphantly executed achievement” — to quote Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams. “Electrifying scholarship” — to quote MacCullouch’s publisher. Well written.

But at times, it reminds me of one of those Bible genealogies: “And so and so begat so and so, who begat so-and-so, who dug a well near the hills of such and such that stands to this day.”

(As my wife correctly noted, a genealogy is generally only interesting if it’s your own genealogy. Or if, at a minimum, you recognize most of the names.)

Here’s the book’s greatest strength and greatest weakness. It tries to summarize the history and beliefs of all Christians. Everywhere. At all times. In 1,000 pages.

Want to know about the evolution of the church in Ethiopia? It’s in there. Kiev? Yes. Bagdhad? Youbetcha. Hundreds of Popes, Patriarchs and Emperors. (Seemingly) thousands of crusades, jihads, Holy Wars and inquisitions. Multitudes of doctrinal disputes both big and small. I’m learning a lot, but it’s all a blur.

I loved Diarmaid MacCulloch’s much-heralded book on the Reformation. But the book devoted 800 or so pages to roughly 500 years o