In Friday’s RNS report Robert Cohen reports that religious and human rights organizations are complaining about Germany’s preparations to accommodate sex workers during the World Cup:
As they prepare for next month’s World Cup and the arrival of millions of soccer fans, German authorities are taking every precaution to guard against terrorist threats, hooligans and other potential problems. But Rep. Christopher Smith, R-N.J., and a coalition of religious and human rights organizations charged this week that German officials are turning a blind eye to the thousands of foreign prostitutes who are expected to flood the 12 cities hosting World Cup games. In anticipation of the World Cup, scheduled for June 9 to July 9, cities where the games will be played plan to provide special licenses for additional sex workers. Some have been planning temporary “sex huts” to accommodate the increased demand from patrons.
Small churches find they must change or die, reports Jeremy Gray from Chelsea, Ala.: When Leonard Irvin became pastor of Mount Signal Baptist Church in 2003, only about 10 people were attending its Sunday services. At its peak in the late 1960s, the church drew an average of about 125. Attendance may never return to that level, but it has almost doubled since Irvin came on board. “We had a meeting one night and decided if we can’t reach some younger families, our church is destined to die in 20 years,” Irvin said. Members didn’t want that. In a suburban landscape where mega-churches are thriving, smaller, older churches like the ones in the rural South with dwindling congregations often must choose between changing their worship styles to attract younger members or continuing as they have for decades and accepting that their churches may cease to exist.
Nancy Haught looks at “Geez,” an irreverent journal that spreads “holy mischief”: Open a copy of Geez, and you’ll find “postmodern drivel,” as one reader ranted, or “great joy and comfort,” as another raved. Edited in Canada and designed in Oregon, Geez is a mostly straight-faced, sometimes slightly irreverent journal promoting “holy mischief in an age of fast faith.” It pokes, piques and prods Christians, and the unconverted among its readers, to live out the revolutionary values of Jesus in a consumer-driven, postmodern, materialist world.
