July 6, 2011 | 12:02 pm

Crystal Cathedral does damage control

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

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In response to the OC Register’s report that the Crystal Cathedral board of directors had pushed out founder Robert H. Schuller, the church shot back by saying that their former pastor, Schuller’s son who knows a thing or two about being pushed out, misrepresented the situation.

The LAT reports:

“He [Robert H. Schuller] was not voted off the board,” said John Charles, the Garden Grove church spokesman. “He is still board chairman emeritus.”

The church released its statement a day after Schuller’s son, Robert Anthony Schuller, said his 84-year-old father had been ousted because he had proposed adding new members to the board.

“Recently, the board of directors of Crystal Cathedral Ministries voted to change Dr. Schuller’s position from that of a voting board member to the honorary Chairman of the Board Emeritus, a non-voting position,” the statement read.

In other words, the elder Schuller is still welcome at board meetings, but he can’t vote. So why leave him on the board in an emeritus status? To save face for Schuller or the board?

More interesting is the way this the Schuller family’s personal drama and relationships have played out publicly like a Shakespearean play.

July 5, 2011 | 5:19 pm

SF city attorney says circumcision ban unconstitutional

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

Shortly after writing about The Circumcision Wars for the Wall Street Journal, I considered crafted a law review article out of the whole mess. Then I decided that despite interesting First Amendment issues, the question likely would be moot by the time I tried to get the article published.

We’re not there yet, but the case for circumcision bans is shriveling.

First the supporter of a Santa Monica circumcision ban pulled out. Now RNS is reporting that the San Francisco city attorney has concluded that if the ballot measure passes in November, it will immediately be in violation of the U.S. Constitution.

“San Franciscans cannot be asked to vote on whether to prohibit religious minorities from engaging in a particular religious practice, when the same practice may be performed under nonreligious auspices,” wrote Chief Deputy City Attorney Therese Stewart.

In the meantime, a lawsuit brought by a coalition of Muslims and Jews, arguing that city’s cannot regulate a medical procedure allowed by the state, is moving forward in state court.

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July 4, 2011 | 9:53 am

Crystal Cathedral pushes out founder Robert H. Schuller

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

The hits just keep coming at the Crystal Cathedral. It’s been a bad, bad year for the shriveling megachurch. But news that founder Robert H. Schuller has been pushed out might be the final straw for those who had continued to support the church.

The OC Register reports:

The church has not released information about the board meeting where Schuller, 84, was ousted, but his son Robert A. Schuller, who was himself forced out of the cathedral by his sisters and brothers-in-law three years ago, confirmed it Sunday.

He said his father wanted to enlarge the board, which was not received well by the others.

“A majority of that board consists of paid employees of the church and that’s a serious conflict of interest,” Robert A. Schuller said.

It would seem so, though it’s also not surprising that current board members would not want to expand the board and dilute their influence.

Read the rest here.

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July 3, 2011 | 11:07 am

Iran upholds Christian’s death sentence

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

I, for one, am 100 percent shocked that Iran’s supreme court would uphold the death penalty for apostasy. Wait a minute ... no I’m not. This is a country that only relatively recently halted execution by stoning and hangs men for being gay.

Here’s the story from AKI:

A lower Iranian court sentenced the priest, Yousef Nadarkhani, from the city of Rasht on the Black Sea, in December 2010 after finding him guilty of apostasy. He has been held for almost two years in Lakan prison and was arrested in October, 2009 while attempting to register his evangelical church in the city of Rasht.

The young priest was born to a Muslim family but denies he was ever a Muslim.

See, the question for the high court of the Islamic Republic of Iran wasn’t whether such punishment was cruel and unusual, but whether the death sentence for a Christian priest who was born to a Muslim family was correct. In other words, had Nadarkhani converted out of Islam or was he never a Muslim to begin with?

The court upheld the former. But how much of their ruling was about applying a law that is so medieval it’s absurd as opposed to just about persecuting a Christian leader?

(Hat tip: Howard Friedman)

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July 2, 2011 | 4:21 pm

Atheists politicize Independence Day

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

There is no doubt that at atheists are treated differently in the United States—“baby eaters” who are not going to be elected president anytime soon. But I can’t agree with the organization American Atheists, which plans to politicize your Fourth of July.

Here is an excerpt of an email I got from the AA communications director:

As Americans head for vacation spots or fire up their backyard grills this weekend to celebrate Independence Day, they will be seeing more than fireworks when they look up.

Planes trailing banners will be flying throughout the nation with
messages like:

God-LESS America—Atheists.org and
Atheism is Patriotic - Atheists.org

“The purpose of the banners is to highlight the fact that atheists are everywhere, in every parade, on every beach, and in every state, city, and town,” said Dave Silverman, President of American Atheists. “Atheism is alive and growing in the U.S. “.

This PR move is not going over well with the public, as CNN’s Katie Glaeser reports.

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July 2, 2011 | 8:45 am

The presidential campaign season outside the Christian mainstream?

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

Cool Los Angeles Times op-ed from Doyle McManus about the religions of U.S. presidents. Hint: no Mormons, Muslims or Jews.

There was one Catholic—JFK—which McManus characterizes as “outside that mainstream tradition,” though I did not mean Mainline because four presidents have been Baptists.

Then the LAT’s political ace notes:

But among the leading candidates for this year’s Republican presidential nomination, not one is a member of the Protestant denominations that for so long have dominated American political culture.

Two of the potential candidates are Mormons (former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr.); one is a member of an interdenominational evangelical church (former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty); two others are Catholics (former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and former Sen. Rick Santorum). Rep. Michele Bachmann, who says she’s considering the race, worships at an evangelical Lutheran church; if elected, she’d be the first Lutheran president.

But no matter who wins from this list, it won’t be an Episcopalian, a Presbyterian or a Methodist.

Read the rest here.

The question of whether that’s a problem is more for political strategists (at least I hope) than it is for religious folks. Though I don’t think those evaluations of those groups are mutually exclusive.

Read more of this post

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July 1, 2011 | 8:32 pm

Tell me if you’ve heard this before: Christian films can be box office successes

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

Here’s a headline that looks like it’s straight out of 2004: “Producers hope Hollywood notices success of faith-based movies and makes more.”

Haven’t we seen this story before? Often, even. In fact, I wrote a bit about it here.

But maybe the story is fresher than the headline makes it seem. Let’s have a look at the AP story:

Producers of faith-based movies have a message for Hollywood studios: Make the movies and customers will pay to watch them.
The enormous success of Mel Gibson’s “The Passion of the Christ” in 2004 shocked Tinseltown when it grossed $611 million worldwide. Despite the huge profit, the production of faith-based movies became stagnant, arguably because of low box office numbers.

Support for such films has picked up in recent years with the success of movies like “Fireproof” in 2008 and now this year’s “Jumping the Broom” and “Soul Surfer.”

Uh, not really. Same story. Different decade.

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