This weekend, Liz passed along to me one of C.S. Lewis' most legendary essays, "The Weight of Glory", published in the early 1940s. It epitomizes many of his characteristic ideas, and made for an interesting discussion.Poll shows support for torture among Southern evangelicals
by Adelle M. Banks
Religion News Service
WASHINGTON -- A new poll released Thursday (Sept. 11) finds that nearly six in 10 white Southern evangelicals believe torture is justified, but their views can shift when they consider the Christian principle of the golden rule.
The poll, commissioned by Faith in Public Life and Mercer University, found that 57 percent of respondents said torture can be often or sometimes justified to gain important information from suspected terrorists. Thirty-eight percent said it was never or rarely justified.
But when asked if they agree that "the U.S. government should not use methods against our enemies that we would not want used on American soldiers," the percentage who said torture was rarely or never justified rose to 52 percent.
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David Gushee, a Christian ethics professor at Mercer and the president of the evangelical group, said the poll numbers should tell leaders, including presidential nominees Barack Obama and John McCain, who oppose torture that people can change their minds about this issue if it is discussed from a moral standpoint.
"Ryan McMinn had a random thought: If matter changes its properties via chemical reactions, does energy change its properties via reactions?"Not exactly. There is an apples-&-oranges issue here. Matter, in the sense of E=mc^2, means "mass", and mass itself does not change properties per se -- in chemistry, it itself is a property of all atomic or subatomic material, not explained by chemistry. In chemical reactions, mass itself does not change: you can either lose/gain mass from one system to the next, or mass can be converted to/from pure energy.
Some days she strides up to church wearing hot pants and biker boots. Or she might opt for dominatrix-style red leather high heels to go with her six piercings including a nose stud.
Not the apparel you would normally expect from a Church of England curate.
But punk rocker Skye Denno insists it is her way of serving God.
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'The Church can be quite cliquey and it's important for me to keep it real and not be another stuffy, middle-class vicar.'
Miss Denno moved to the town with her partner Joel and their two young children last month to take up her new role.
She had previously wanted to be a missionary and went to the Redcliffe Christian College for Bible and Mission Training in Gloucester.
But she realised her natural calling was to become a vicar.
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When not helping out at the small church, she prefers to spend her time in the pub or watching bands.
She added: 'I like a good gig and I love dancing. I like The Cure, Sex Pistols, Clash, Sisters of Mercy and Last Dance. Luckily I have never been into drugs.
'I would sometimes end up praying in a club. People would hear I was a Christian and come and talk to me and I would say a prayer for them if they wanted me to.'
