A piece in the American Prospect Online by Chris Mooney examines the recurring “Frankenstein myth,” and its relation to contemporary Hollywood projects and the state of modern science. In “The Monster That Wouldn’t Die,” Mooney decries the endless preachy retreads of the Frankenstein myth, first laid out in Mary Shelley’s 19th-century classic and recycled by Hollywood constantly in films from Godsend to Jurassic Park. I’m sick of gross caricatures of mad-scientist megalomaniacs out to accrue for themselves powers reserved only...

Zimbabwe churches form body to help demolition victims Harare (ENI). Church groups in Zimbabwe have formed a coalition to help victims of a clean-up drive that left hundreds of thousands homeless and drew condemnation from the United Nations and international aid organizations. “Churches have formed a broad-based ecumenical body in the aftermath of the clean-up operation,” the Rev. Charles Muchechetere of the Evangelical Fellowship of Zimbabwe told Ecumenical News International. The prises EFZ the Zimbabwe Council of Churches and the...

In the current edition of The Weekly Messenger (no longer active), John H. Armstrong examines the role of pastor in the Protestant church. In “Getting the Role of Pastor Right Again,” he writes, For a long time I have had serious doubts about many of the models of pastoral ministry used and promoted in the West. These models range from academic and biblical teacher models to chief counselor and care-giver. In my estimation they all fail the biblical test at...

Brother Roger, founder of the ecumenical munity, Taize, was murdered yesterday while praying. Details here. Brother Roger founded Taize in 1940. ...

News from Los Angeles: Two homeless men were attacked with baseball bats and one of them critically injured, allegedly by teens inspired by videos of homeless people brawling that have sold hundreds of thousands of copies over the Internet. The alleged attackers told officers they had recently seen the DVD “Bumfights” and wanted to do some “bum bashing” of their own, police Officer Jason Lee said. I examine the intersection between the market, technology, and violence in this mentary. In...

Oh, your lion eyes…Check out the two articles from this week’s journal Nature as reported on . (There must be an editor at work here with a sarcastic sense of humor.) In the first article, mentary by Josh Donlan, a plan is proposed for fighting the loss of endangered species: repopulate the American Plains with (among other things) elephants, wild horses, cheetahs, and yes, lions. The “rewilding” of parts of North America’s heartland could restore some balance to an ecosystem...

Pope Benedict’s highly publicized trip to Germany for this week’s World Youth Day stands as an opportunity for the event to, in the words of Kishore Jayabalan, engage “serious theological and intellectual work.” The pope’s ing means, “If there is a place to show how the Christian faith shaped Europe and formed heroic persons even in its darkest hours, this is it.” Read the full text of mentary. ...

In a FoxNews article, Jack Spencer of the Heritage Foundation reveals some interesting finds from their year-long study of the military industry: US Defense relies heavily on a global free market for its equipment. This may seem to fly in the face of the idea that if anyone ought to buy American, it is the American government. But as Spencer points out Congress has tried repeatedly over the years to steer defense contracts in directions that would supposedly shore up...