Christian leaders are raising questions as to whether it is right to use mixed martial arts as means to spread the gospel.

Adam Groza, a vice president of Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary in California, has strong feelings about the bloody sport, calling it “violence porn” in his column for the Baptist Press, according to The Christian Post.

Groza wrote in his column, “[V]iolence is not part of the plot, it is the attraction. Violence for violence’s sake, as opposed to instrumental or redeeming violence, desensitizes the viewer to the graphic horror of watching two people pummel each other for the sake of entertainment,” The Christian Post reported.

Dr. R. Albert Mohler, president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, however, wrote in his blog that MMA can be a vehicle to spread the gospel. He wrote, “[Some] churches are making a self-conscious effort to reach young men and boys with some kind of proof that Christianity is not a feminized and testosterone-free faith that appeals only to women.”

MMA is the first competitive fighting sport to combine a wide range of fighting styles including kickboxing, boxing, wrestling, jiujitsu, karate, taekwando and others. It was banned in the U.S. a decade ago, but in the last five years gained mainstream status and is regulated and legal in 42 states, The New York Times said.

The Ultimate Fighting Championship is according to The New York Times the premier brand of MMA. It draws millions of viewers, and in 2009 the UFC was the top-earning pay-per-view event, The New York Times said.

A number of Christians are MMA professionals such as Diego Sanchez, Rich Franklin and UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones. The New York Times estimated some 700 white evangelical churches in the U.S. have an MMA ministry.

The purpose is to draw men from the ages of 18 to 34 to church. Groups include Anointed Martial Arts in Temecula, Calif., which combines the gospel with martial arts through its program, ChristJitsu, The Christian Post said.

Gary Kruger, an instructor, told The Christian Post, “[W]e will expose the men to the physical techniques found in MMA, but more importantly use this teaching time as a way to expose the men to the reality that as Christians we are in a spiritual fight and called to fight the good fight of faith.”

Another group is Victory Christian Fellowship in State College, Penn., which includes MMA as part of its outreach. Dave Hatfield, an organizer of the group told The Christian post, “We use our MMA outreaches to tap into guys’ natural desire to conquer and compete and point them to their Creator and the fact He has plans for them to become not only beloved sons, but also warriors for Him.”

Many who are not familiar with MMA are dismayed by the sport’s violence and the blood that is sometimes shed. However, advocates of MMA say that performing the sport involves a lifestyle of discipline required of every athlete.

The Christian Post refers to Todd Thomsen, who commented in an article about the topic published in Baptist Press Sports, “The MMA competitors usually congratulate and thank each other at the end of a match. Some of them are the best of friends outside the ring while they fight each other in the ring.”

James-Michael Smith, a bible teacher who trains in MMA and hopes someday to compete professionally wrote in The Examiner, “[T]the presentation of Jesus as a fighter, and Christianity as rough and tough, is simply not in line with the Gospel message.”

Smith noted that Jesus “fought” by turning the other cheek, especially during his crucifixion. “To deny or distance oneself from this reality of the Gospel–even though done with a desire to reach people with the message of Christ–is basically creating a Jesus in one’s own image…in this case, the image of a cage-fighter,” he wrote in The Examiner.

Still, Smith says that MMA is a sport that Christians can engage in. He writes, “There’s no need to re-image Jesus as a fighter in order to appeal to the MMA lover…just as there is no need to re-image Jesus as a football player in order to appeal to the Superbowl lover! Jesus is Jesus.”

It is the message of Jesus, in the end, that will have a lasting change in people’s lives, “even the most battle-hardened fighter’s heart,” Smith wrote in the Examiner.

The 42^nd Annual Gospel Music Association Dove Awards was held last Wednesday before a full-capacity Fox Theatre in Atlanta, and will be aired at 7 p.m. this Easter Sunday.

The Dove Awards, which was hosted by Sherri Shepherd of The View, honored the veterans of gospel music, even as it acknowledged the new crop of young talents, watchgmctv.com reported.

The top winner of the night was Francesca Battistelli, 25, who won Artist of the Year, Female Vocalist of the year (for the second time), and Pop/Contemporary song of the Year for Beautiful, Beautiful, watchgmctv.com said.

Battistelli told the audience, “This is amazing. I don’t know what to say. Thank you to the Lord. He’s the reason we’re all here. Thank you guys for supporting Christian music,” Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.

Another artist who won three Doves is singer/songwriter Chris August, who was Male Vocalist of the year, New Artist of the Year, and Pop/Contemporary Album of the Year for No Far Away, watchgmctv.com said.

August said, “I literally can’t believe it. As a Christian, I’m humbled. You don’t look for awards. You just want to make music and serve Jesus, but as a person who has been working at music for many years, to finally have someone say ‘hey, you did a great job on something and here’s an award for it…’ that’s a pretty cool feeling,” Watchgmctv.com reported.

Jason Crabb also capped the night with three Dove Awards, as did Point of Grace, the AJC said. The Group of the Year Award went to NEEDTOBREATHE, the Baptist Press said.

Not bleeped

Shepherd, who hosted the show, told AJC that it will be a nice change for her to be able to praise God and not be bleeped. “I love the Lord. I truly, truly love the Lord and I love following Him,” the co-host of The View said.

Shepherd told AJC that she is a great fan of Christian music, favoring Mary Mary, Franklin and TobyMac. She also has a soft spot for Natalie Grant, whose song Held helped her survive the near death of her prematurely born son.

Shepherd told AJC, “Music can renew your faith and uplift you more than words can. This music has gotten me through some stuff. I can’t believe God is so good.”

Special honors

A special tribute was given to Sandi Patty for her lifetime achievements, through a rendition of her songs performed by Battistelli, Grant and Audrey Assad, Baptist Press said.

Patty said, “I was sitting there thinking there has been a lot of life lived since the beginning. I understand God’s grace and His forgiveness in a way that perhaps when I won my first Dove Award 30 years ago I didn’t understand,” Baptist Press reported.

Also highlighted during the show was Steven Curtis Chapman, who with wife Mary Beth has worked hard to promote adoption and orphan care. Curtis performed with Mac Powell of Third Day, and Mark Hall of Casting Crowns, singing Children of God, an adoption-themed song, Baptist Press said.

Another key performance during the program was that of Kenny Rogers who sang The Rock of Your Love together with Point of Grace, the Baptist Press reported.

Presenters include NFL stars Greg Jennings of the Green Bay Packers and Tim Tebow of the Denver Broncos. Tebow told AJC that meeting some of his favorite musicians was “definitely inspiring.”

Some 47 Christians from one of China’s biggest and most prestigious home churches were arrested last Sunday for holding service in a public square in Beijing, in a standoff that has gained global attention.

This is the second wave of arrests by the government against upscale Shouwang Church, with some 1,000 well-heeled members. One week before on Apr.10, Chinese officials picked up 160 of its members.

The arrests have placed the public eye on China’s ongoing crackdown on Christians, which had long managed to fall below the radar. The government also pressured employers of members of Shouwang Church to fire them from their jobs, the Baptist Press said.

Shouwang started with just 10 members in 1993, meeting in the apartment of Rev. Jin Tianming. By 2009 when government strictures eased, they rented a building for services. However, the government pressured the landlord to evict them, The New York Times said.

Last year the church raised $4 million to buy its own property. However, it was again evicted from the place that it had purchased. Rather than go back to being an underground church, Shouwang announced that it would worship in an open space, The New York Times
said.

On April 10, as members of media watched, some 1,000 policemen swept down on the church members and arrested 160 worshippers, including Tianming and other church leaders, the Baptist Press said.

Tianming was released on the morning of Apr. 17. In a letter he had sent out earlier in the week he told churchgoers to “step out, whatever the cost This really and truly is a spiritual battle. The devil Satan has taken advantage of the authority God has granted to the national government to destroy God’s church,” the Baptist Press said.

Many house churches in China choose not to register with the government approved Three-Self Patriotic Movement church, which imposes restrictions on teachings and growth, the Baptist Press said.

It is believed that two-thirds of some 60 million Protestants in China attend house churches. The New York Times noted that most converted Christians in China are young and educated, the demographic that is normally at the head of instituting political change in this country.

Many are drawn to the spirituality, the idea of redemption and sense of community in house churches. They also compare favorably with overcrowded, propaganda-ridden government registered churches, The New York times said.

China has responded to church growth with a huge wave of arrests ranging from high-profile personalities to rights lawyers, democracy advocates and bloggers. Untold numbers have mysteriously disappeared, The New York Times said.

The clampdown has been particularly strong in the past two months in response to a series of revolts that have spread in the Arab Middle East region. The Communist Party has been in power for six decades, The New York Times said.

In the past weeks the heads of two large home churches in Guangzhou were arrested and church members were evicted from their homes. In Shanxi, a house church member was struck by the police with electric batons. There have been reports of harassment of Christians in Xinjiang and Inner Mongolia. Last year there were 3,343 reported instances of arrests and harassment of Christians, a 15 percent increase from the previous year, The New York Times said.

Bob Fu, president of ChinaAid (a body that observes religious freedom in China) told the Baptist Press, “We urge the Chinese government to exercise restraint and refrain from using violence that would further escalate the conflict with peaceful Shouwang worshippers who ask for nothing more than simply to exercise their right to religious freedom.”

Online social networks are useful for retired Christians as a means to pray for missionaries, seek prayer in return, and stay and
stay connected, the head of a prayer network for missionaries said recently.

Ed Cox, director of International Mission Board’s Office of Global Prayer Strategy told the Baptist Press that online networks is a key form of influence building, and it should be used to do God’s work.

Cox told Baptist Press that he hopes that Christians will tap social networks to build the much-needed prayer power that is necessary to back up missionary work noting, “[Social networking] is a major communication force within society.”

Cox told Baptist Press, “I really became convinced that if we were going to communicate with Southern Baptists we need to be where they are … and they are on Facebook. They are on Twitter.”

The Baptist Press noted that among the fastest growing age groups on Facebook is women aged 55 or older, recent studies show. To date, Facebook has over 500 million users.

One of them, June Livingstone, 79, became hooked on Facebook because of CompassionNet, which has a page on the social network where requests of missionaries and updates on their activities are posted, Baptist Press said.

Livingstone, who used to be an active missionary, visits the page daily and comments regularly. She told Baptist Press, “I can’t travel very much anymore, but I like to pray. I think it does me more good than it does [the missionaries].”

CompassionNet has a prayer app which lets people access it from iPhones, iPads and Android phones as well. The APP includes videos, MP3 prayer guides and missionary blog excerpts, Baptist Press said.

The prayer site is one of the endeavors of IMB’s Office of Global Prayer Strategy. Livingstone told Baptist Press that although she uses Facebook to catch up with her grandchildren and great-grandchildren, most of her time is spent at CompassionNet, Baptist Press said.

A review of Compassion Net’s website shows that they have a strong focus on prayer, including prayer threads, prayer requests, prayer line, KOMpray for children, prayer products, and others.

The website’s home page is filled with regular updates on the situation in Japan, but there are also sections for people around the world, healthcare connections, stories, videos and photos, among others.

Of interest is its resources section which shows, among others, a Kingdom Women Kit to show how God uses women to make himself known to unbelievers, The Camel Workshop which shows how to minister to Muslims and how to ride a camel, and the book, Unveiled at Last: Discover God’s Hidden Message from Genesis to Revelation, the website said.

But social networking, Cox said, has a special role because it serves as a way to encourage missionaries on the field. “I think the powerful thing behind Facebook, as opposed to our e-newsletters and our website, is the fact that people have the opportunity to interact,” Cox told Baptist Press.

To date, CompassionNet on Facebook has 3,100 friends, but Cox told Baptist Press that considering there are 16 million Southern Baptists, the potential is rich and largely untapped.

Fear of radiation is the biggest obstacle that aid groups in Japan wrestle with, Southern Baptist relief specialists said recently.

A group of Southern Baptists from Alabama and South Carolina told the Baptist Press that the fear of radiation has not only distressed the Japanese, but remains a leading headline in media sparking fears around the world, Baptist Press said.

Eddie Pettit of Sunset, S.C. told Baptist Press, “The fear of radiation is really the biggest obstacle in responding to Japan’s disaster. We have to convince the people in the States that it’s safe to work here. I want Southern Baptists to know that the radiation scare is a lot worse in the States than it is here now.”

Pettit, who came with the Southern Baptist relief specialists, said the fear of radiation kept people in Tokyo within their homes for up to three weeks, although they are 200 miles away from the damaged Fukushima nuclear plant, Baptist Press reported.

Things are slowly returning to normal compared to last March 19 when Pettit landed in a nearly empty Tokyo airport, and a crosswalk where hundreds of Japanese ordinarily elbowed through the street only had up to 20 people, Baptist Press said.

Now, according to Baptist Press, people in Tokyo are beginning to return to work and restaurants are reopening, although sometimes concerns are uttered here and there as to whether the fruit might be safe.

Pettit told Baptist Press that every disaster is different, but Japan is “three disasters in one: earthquake, tsunami and radiation fears…[T]here is going to be plenty of disaster work for a long time.”

Radiation in corpses, groundwater

While Tokyo is returning to normalcy, new radiation fears have arisen with recent news that a corpse showed high levels of radiation three miles away from the Fukushima nuclear power plant, Indo-Asian News Service said.

The discovery has kept authorities from collecting about 1,000 other bodies within the radius. Cremated radioactive corpses could spread the radiation, and burying them could cause radiation to seep into the ground, Indo-Asian News Service reported. The government is working to decontaminate the bodies.

A Tokyo Electric Power Company report also pegged high levels of radiation in the groundwater from five of six reactors in the Fukushima nuclear plant. The groundwater of one reactor, No. 4, could not be tested due to surrounding debris, Press Trust of India said.

The Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency of Tokyo however questions TEPCO’s findings, noting errors in its readings of zirconium, tellurium and molybdenum were erroneous around the No. 1 reactor, according to Press Trust of India.

Hidehiko Nishiyama, spokesman of the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency told Kyodo, “TEPCO faces a grave situation as it is failing to live up to the expectations of people who are very worried by the company. Its data should be trustworthy,” Press Trust of India reported.

TEPCO also adjusted its original analysis of radiation levels in the groundwater of reactor No. 2 this week. It first placed radiation levels at 10 million times higher, and has corrected it to 100,000 times, Press Trust of India said.

Radiation detection card

Southern Baptist volunteers are wearing radiation detection cards on their necks, which resemble a credit card and contain dots to detect radiation levels, called a dosimeter, Baptist Press said.

Volunteers are stationed outside of a 50-kilometer radiation zone as recommended by the United States. In Ishinomaki, hundreds of cars are seen stacked up to four vehicles high. Ships and boats are seen on roads. Homes are filled with mud, and trash is seen in seven-foot high piles, Baptist Press reported.

Neighborhoods still don’t have kerosene or electricity. A snowstorm hit the disaster-struck prefecture hours after the tsunami, and people have been shivering in cold day and night, according to Baptist Press.

The Southern Baptist volunteers are helping to shovel mud outside of homes and shops, Baptist Press reported. Another group prepares 3,000 hot meals daily in an area that has no relief supplies and no electricity.

All volunteers are instructed to check their dosimeter every two hours, even as they try to show the love of Jesus in action and hopefully, save a few souls while doing so, Baptist Press said.

Christians have good things and bad things to say about the position that President Barack Obama is taking in Libya.

Richard Land, president of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention said Obama made the correct decision, and lauded the president’s highlighting of American ideals, Baptist Press said.

Land said, “[M]any Americans and most Southern Baptists appreciated President Obama’s reaffirmation of our values and beliefs, and that it would violate our values and beliefs to allow human beings to be massacred by their own government, when we had the ability to stop such a slaughter of human beings with a relatively small exercise of American military power,” Baptist Press reported.

Land said Obama’s action “[I]s the opposite and correct decision to the wrong decision by President Clinton not to intervene in Rwanda in 1994, which resulted in as many as one million people being hacked to death in about three months’ time,” according to Baptist Press.

Land added, “At least in the end we’re doing the right thing. I just hope and pray that it is not too late because Gaddafi murdering his fellow citizens, butchering them – it’s what the world looks like without U.S. leadership,” The Christian Post reported.

Land also said, “Mr. Gaddafi needs to be tried and found guilty of crimes against humanity including the Lockerbie bombing, and then he needs to be hung as the war criminal that he is,” according to Christianity Today.

Just-war tradition

Another evangelist who approves is Chuck Colson, founder of Breakpoint. On his webpage Colson said that intervention by coalition forces must follow “the Christian just-war tradition.”

Colson wrote on his blog, “In order to be just, a military action must be for a just cause and done for the right reason. It must be waged by a legitimate authority as a last resort. I can’t imagine a more just and proportional response to the massacre of innocent people than to establish a no-fly zone. So, I was mystified and chagrined by our nation’s inaction.

“Again, America can’t run around the globe solving every conflict. But there are times when we have the ability and the moral obligation to stop a grave injustice … and to help innocent people who seek only freedom. This was one of those times,” Colson wrote in his website.

Colson concluded in his blog, “America is great so long as it is a moral beacon. When we behave immorally, when we look the other way in the face of grave evil, we lose our greatness. And we Christians — the moral conscience of society — have to be the ones to say so.”

Illegal use of military

Land said that while he lauds Obama’s action, the president was wrong to do it without congressional approval. “For the president to authorize the use of American military force in combat without seeking the prior or the subsequent approval of Congress is — to put it bluntly – illegal,” Baptist Press reported.

The 1973 War Powers Act allows a U.S. president to send forces into battle for 60 days, with an additional 30 day extension–without congressional approval. Land said Obama should, within those 90 days, get congress to approve, Baptist Press said.

Land stressed, “Otherwise, it sets a dangerous precedent of the overreach of executive branch power and does damage to the balance of powers designed by our forefathers,” Baptist Press reported.

Evangelicals in the U.K. said international interference in Libya should be contained and not escalate. Steve Clifford, general director of the U.K.’s Evangelical Alliance said, “We ask that the current UN campaign does not go beyond its mandate and that civilian lives are protected in every possible way,” The Christian Post reported.

American interests and values

In a televised speech at the National Defense University, Washington D.C., Obama said, “There will be times…when our safety is not directly threatened, but our interests and our values are,” according to the Baptist Press.

The goal of the U.S. action is only to protect the Libyan people and to ground the Libyan air force by enforcing a no-fly zone with the support of the United Nations Security Council, according to the Baptist Press.

The overthrow of Gaddafi will be done non-militarily, otherwise, “Broadening our military mission to include regime change would be a mistake,” Obama said, and would lead to U.S. troops on the ground, increased cost, and may destroy the coalition, Baptist Press said.

“To be blunt, we went down that road in Iraq, [which] took eight years, [and cost] thousands of American and Iraqi lives and nearly a trillion dollars. That is not something we can afford to repeat in Libya,” the Baptist Press reported.

Obama said the international coalition intervention in Libya seeks to strengthen democracy and prevent possible obstructions to transitions taking place in Tunisia and Egypt, according to the Baptist Press.

Obama said, “The democratic impulses that are dawning across the region would be eclipsed by the darkest form of dictatorship, as repressive leaders concluded that violence is the best strategy to cling to power,” the Baptist Press reported.

A congressman urged recently President Barack Obama to raise the issue of human rights violations in China stemming from its one-child per couple policy, when the president meets with China’s President Hu Jintao this week.

Congressman Chris Smith of New Jersey, in a press conference, said women in China are forced to abort their babies and oftentimes, because they can only have one child, they are pressured to abort females, Life News said.

Smith said, “[China’s one-child policy] is ‘marked by pervasive propaganda, mandatory monitoring of women’s reproductive cycles, mandatory contraception, and mandatory birth permits, coercive fines for failure to comply, and…forced sterilization and abortion,’” Life News reported.

Smith said that in China, “illegal children” cannot have access to health care, education and marriage. Fines to bear illegal children are ten times the yearly income of both parents, and families who fail to pay may be jailed or their child may be killed, Life News said.

Smith also said the family of an illegally pregnant woman who flees may be beaten and jailed, and neighbors and colleagues may be denied birth permits because of her. Women are also physically forced to have abortions, according to Life News.

Chai Ling, a former Tiananmen Square student leader, showed a petition of 1,500 signatures and photos of 300 people around the world urging Obama to raise the issue of abortion and gendercide with Hu, Christian Newswire said.

Chai said over 35,000 coerced and forced abortions take place daily in China, and a baby dies every 2.5 seconds. One of every six girls is aborted for her gender, and 500 women commit suicide, “five times the world average rate,” Christian Newswire reported.

Chai also said 3,000 baby girls are abandoned in street corners daily, while over 200 women and children are sold to slavery. Chai said, “The brutal and violent enforcement of the one-child policy is the largest crime against humanity; it is the inhuman secret slaughter against mother and babies,” according to Christian Newswire.

During the press conference Smith told the story of Wujian, a victim of forced abortion. Wujian hid from the population police but was found and brought forcibly to a hospital where she saw “hundreds of pregnant moms,” who were “like pigs in a slaughterhouse,” Life News reported.

Wujian’s baby was cut into pieces in her womb, and then sucked out. In her testimony she said, “I could hear the sound of the scissors cutting the body of my baby…one nurse showed me part of a bloody foot with her tweezers,” Life News reported.

Borrowing from the words of the late Rev. Martin Luther King, Chai said she had a dream of children in China growing up with “brothers and sisters, uncles and aunts,” of  “mothers [who] mourn no more because they are with children, and of tears wiped from the “faces of parents whose children were taken,” Christian Newswire reported.

Chai also said she dreamed that “justice will roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream…that God would bless his promised land of China and the World,” according to Christian Newswire.

China’s President Hu Jintao admitted recently that China still needs to do more to improve human rights in his country.

Hu made the statement during a press conference in the company of President Barack Obama during his state visit, and said China would do more to better the lives of its people, Christian Today said.

Hu said, “China is always committed to the protection and promotion of human rights. China has also made enormous progress recognized widely in the world,” Christian Today reported.

Hu added, “China still faces many challenges in economic and social development, and a lot still needs to be done in China in terms of human rights. We will continue our efforts to improve the lives of the Chinese people and to promote democracy and the rule of law,” according to Christian Today.

Poor track record

During the meeting of Hu and Obama, Tibetans gathered in protest outside the White House, Christian Today said. Critics have strongly condemned China’s poor track record in human rights.

Recently the US urged China to free Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo and other prisoners of conscience, Christian Today said.

Bob Fu, president of China Aid Association, in a statement at a congressional press conference cited other human rights victims, including Uyghur Christian Alimjiang Yimiti, who since 2009 has been serving a 15 year sentence for belonging to an underground Christian church, Christian NewsWire reported.

Fu also mentioned Li Heng, who he said was a ‘prisoner of faith’ and who, after a lengthy imprisonment, was tortured to death. Fu took issue with Sec. Clinton’s statement where she placed China and the US in “the same boat,” Christian NewsWire said.

Fu said, “A regime that imprisons many people of faith in labor camps [and] in prisons in China should not be qualified to share the same boat with a democracy. It totally disregards the rules, regulations, universal values of this boat,” Christian NewsWire reported.

Source of tension

During the press conference with Hu, Obama said he was “very candid” with Hu regarding human rights as a “source of tension” in US-China relations, Christian Today said.

Obama said, “I believe part of justice and part of human rights is people being able to make a living and having enough to eat and having shelter and having electricity,” according to Christian Today.

Obama added, “We just want to make sure that rise occurs in a way that reinforces international norms, international rules, and enhances security and peace as opposed to it being a source of conflict either in the region or around the world,” Christian Today reported.

Overblown fanfare

Critics have decried overblown fanfare for Hu in view of China’s wanting human rights record, including a White House state dinner. Rep. Frank Wolf said, “The Chinese government has done little in [the] past 13 years, almost nothing quite frankly in the past 13 years, to deserve the honor of a White House state dinner,” according to Christian Today.

The May 1 pending beatification of the late Pope John Paul II has raised a few eyebrows among some Catholics.

The lay Catholic group, The International Movement We Are Church issued a press release recently decrying the late pontiff’s beatification due to his poor handling of clergy sex abuse, which under his 27-year watch, was suppressed and in this way, they say, enabled, according to their statement.

After the pontiff’s death clergy sexual abuse was shown to be global and more prevalent than was believed. Ministry Values mentioned John Paul’s favor of Fr. Marcial Maciel Degollado, the late founder of the Legionaries of Christ who was a serial abuser and may who fathered at least one child, among many others.

Barbara Dorris, St. Louis outreach director of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests said the beatification is like “rubbing more salt into these wounds” of victims of clergy sex abuse, Politics Daily said.

Dorris told Politics Daily, “There’s a reason we usually move slowly in honoring public figures. Often, some of their unsavory actions and inactions surface years later. That’s slowly happening with Pope John Paul II. When we honor those who ignor or conceal wrongdoing, we essentially condone wrongdoing.”

Ministry Values also said it is not yet known what John Paul knew regarding how the Vatican Bank handled the 1982 collapse of the Banco Ambrosiano, and the scandal linked to it.

IMWAC also questioned in their press release John Paul’s quelling of the Liberation Theology movement, suppresseing the issue of gender equality, and failure to condone use of condoms to prevent HIV/AIDS (Pope Benedict XVI said in such instance, it’s a moral choice), USA Today reported.

IMWAC said, “beatification and ultimately sainthood should not be measured by whether a ‘miracle’ can be attributed to a particular person, but rather, whether someone’s life truly embodies the values of Christ who sought, not power, but the wellbeing of God’s people,” ABC News Radio reported.

A Roman Catholic qualifies for beatification if a miracle is clearly attributed to intervention by the deceased. A second miracle makes one eligible for canonization or sainthood, Politics Daily said.

Vatican medical experts and theologians affirmed that Sister Marie Simon-Pierre, a French nun, was healed of Parkinson’s disease, the same sickness that John Paul had, after she prayed for his intercession on June 3, 2005, (he died in April 2005), the AP said.

Blood relic

Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz, the longtime aide of John Paul II, told UPI a vial of blood from the late pope will be his relic when he’s beatified. The tradition of keeping relics stems from the Middle Ages.

The vial of blood was given to Dziwisz when the pope underwent several medical tests before a tracheotomy. It will be kept in a crystal and remain on an altar at the John Paul II Institute in Krakow, UPI said.

An expert testified recently in a polygamy case in Canada that monogamous marriage has been a tradition for 2,500 years, and polygamy has, for 750 years, been a crime.

John Witte, Jr., director of the Law and Religion Center, Emory University, also told a British Columbia Supreme Court that there were times in history that polygamy was punishable by death, PostMedia News said.

Witte is testifying in a landmark constitutional reference case that will form the basis on deciding whether Canada’s polygamy law is justifiable or whether it should be struck down, The Globe and Mail said.

The case was brought to the Supreme Court because in 2009 James Oler and Winston Blackmore, leaders of the sect Bountiful (from the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints), were charged with polygamy, The Canadian Press reported.

The charges against Oler and Blackmore failed to prosper on technical and legal grounds. Rather than appeal, the issue of polygamy, which B.C. governments have grappled with for years, was brought to the B.C. Supreme Court, The Globe and Mail said.

The outcome of the case will determine if Canada’s polygamy law is a violation of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, especially with regard to religious freedom, The Canadian Press said.

The B.C. attorney-general said polygamy inflicts human rights violations and harm to men, women and children, noting that young boys are often removed from communities where polygamy is practiced, and girls as young as 12 are married off, The Globe and Mail reported.

Polygamy is a choice

John Walsh of the FLDS testified last week that nobody is forced into a polygamous relationship adding, “According to doctrine, nobody could be forced. It would be an abuse of power and a deviation from normative standards,” The Globe and Mail reported.

Walsh also said that while there is no specific age recommendation for the marriage of girls, FLDS members he had conferred with would be “troubled and astonished” to hear that 12-year-old girls were being wed, The Globe and Mail said.

However, under cross examination Walsh admitted that in a previous U.S. court testimony, he said there could be “spiritual consequences” if a girl did not agree to an arranged marriage, The Globe and Mail said.

Walsh also said FLDS members have been banned from the community for disruptive behavior that failed to meet “community expectation,” according to The Globe and Mail.

History of polygamy law

The B.C. government lawyer (which seeks retention of the polygamy law) admitted that if the law was intended to impose Christianity on the public, then it should be struck down, The Canadian Press said.

However Witte testified that the tradition goes back 2,500 years noting that “the [prohibitions against polygamy] are pre-Christian in that we have these formulations in Greek texts and pre-Christian Roman law,” The Canadian Press reported.

Witte mentioned ancient philosophers from Greece and Rome who said monogamous marriage is “natural and necessary” for mutual respect and love to prevail among couples, The Canadian Press reported.

Witte also cited Roman emperors who enforced the first laws against polygamy, and who considered the crime on the same level as incest and rape, according to The Canadian Press.

Witte also testified that it is post-Christian as “the architects of modern liberalism are making clear that if you want to respect rights, if you want to respect dignity, it is critical to maintain the institution of monogamy and prohibit and criminalize the institution of polygamy,” according to The Canadian Press.

According to The Canadian Press, former and current members of polygamous marriage communities, including Bountiful, will testify starting next week until the end of the month.

Legal experts believe the case may eventually land in Canada’s Supreme Court, The Canadian Press said.