c. 2007 Religion News Service

Friends say Mother Teresa’s darkness was a test of faith

LATROBE, Pa. (RNS) To the people who knew and loved Mother Teresa of Calcutta, the darkness she wrote about in her memoirs was not a crisis of faith, but a trial of her faith.

“When people see the story of her great faith and love, they see that kind of experience that’s necessary for someone on this mystic way to Jesus Christ,” the Rev. Brian Kolodiejchuk, editor of “Mother Teresa: Come Be My Light,” said at a recent conference held at Saint Vincent College.

“Remembrances of Mother Teresa of Calcutta by Her Family and Friends” drew nearly 1,000 people from around the world. They included her successor as head of the Missionaries of Charity, Sister Nirmala Joshi, and the Rev. Robert Conroy, superior general of the Missionaries of Charity Fathers and a founder of the I Thirst Movement, started in 2006 in response to one of the driving forces of Mother Teresa’s passion for the poor.

“She hears Christ call out, `I thirst,’ and she asks how she can satiate the thirst of God,” he said. “The Lord was asking her to become a victim of love.”

Mother Teresa was united with Christ in sharing his feeling of abandonment in the Garden of Gethsemane and in “sharing in his suffering,” Kolodiejchuk said. “She shared the suffering of our poor by being one with them to redeem them.”

Kolodiejchuk has been asked if Mother Teresa’s spiritual darkness was actually depression. “I asked a psychiatrist to go through her memoirs, and he said they were not characteristic of the symptoms of depression,” he said. “She showed cheerfulness aside from (when she was) in prayer, and there was not a withdrawal.”

Sister Nirmala was one of many who spoke about Mother Teresa’s sense of humor, laughter and joy, and the light in her eyes. “I felt like she did not belong on earth,” she said.

Mother Teresa’s famous smile, Kolodiejchuk said, was not false. “She had come to love the darkness,” he said. “It was part of the spirit of her work. She lived all those years in pure love.”

The reunion was organized by St. Vincent College President H. James Towey, a friend and former legal counsel to Mother Teresa.

_ Maryann Gogniat Eidemiller

Feds open window for new radio slots

(RNS) Those who seek the continued expansion of Christian radio stations have their fingers crossed.

Starting Friday (Oct. 12), the Federal Communications Commission will, for one week, lift the seven-year freeze on new applications for noncommercial educational radio stations _ the slots on the low end of the FM dial, where Christian radio stations are concentrated alongside public and community stations.

With major media markets already saturated, this is considered “the last frequency land rush,” said Al Stavitsky, associate dean of the University of Oregon’s School of Journalism and Communication.

Nonprofits of all stripes, from individual churches to public radio conglomerates, are competing for the chance at a free station afforded by the FCC.

For Christian radio, the window marks a key opportunity to continue an astonishing growth trajectory: “Contemporary Christian” stations account for the fastest-growing format in noncommercial radio, jumping from 230 to 727 stations in the last decade, according to The Radio Book.

Yet some feel stymied by the FCC’s new rules _ a recommended cap of 10 applications per organization and a point system meant to favor locally owned, diverse stations.

“If I can only get 10 radio stations throughout the state of Alabama, that’s not going to help spread the word,” said Jimmy Jarrell of Auburn, who currently owns three Christian radio stations in his home state. It “might be 10 more years or 20 more years before I ever get another chance to do that.”

Even some conglomerates are crying foul.

“The rules have been stacked against us,” said Tim Wildmon, president of the American Family Association in Tupelo, Miss. He says his nearly 200 Christian radio stations may reach as many people as one locally owned station in New York. “We don’t expect to get many more stations in the future unless we buy them,” he said.

To be sure, religious radio stations are also pursuing the latest in listening trends _ from satellite radio to Web streaming and podcasting. And as frequencies fill with a wider array of stations, they will have to grow by expanding new technologies and marketing existing stations or buying new ones.

_ Rachel Pomerance

What would Jesus read? Behold the green Bible!

(RNS) If the “What Would Jesus Drive?” campaign aimed to get Jesus into a fuel-efficient hybrid, now there’s an answer to “What Would Jesus Read?”

Publishing giant Thomas Nelson Inc. has released the first-ever “green” Bible. The Charles F. Stanley Life Principles Daily Bible uses paper certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) and includes an FSC logo on its packaging.

“People are looking for things that are environmentally friendly,” said Brenda Smotherman, the company’s Bibles publicist, adding the eco-friendly Bible came after surveying “consumer needs.”

Katie Miller, a spokeswoman for the FSC, said the green Bible follows the latest Harry Potter book in going green. From the forest to the paper mill to the printer, every stage of production must meet FSC standards, Miller said.

Stanley is the longtime pastor of the First Baptist Church of Atlanta and host of the “InTouch Ministries” television broadcast.

The new Bible comes as part of a larger effort at Thomas Nelson to practice stewardship and implement environmentally friendly practices. “We are committed to trying to learn more about how we can reduce our carbon footprint as a company,” said Lindsey Nobles, director of corporate communications at Thomas Nelson.

Thomas Nelson has created an “internal environmental task force” to address this issue, President and CEO Michael S. Hyatt said in a press release.

_ Heather Donckels

Quote of the Day: Regent University law student Adam Key

(RNS) “I will pay any price to defend free expression _ especially anyone who wants to take it away in the name of God.”

_ Adam Key, a law student at Regent University in Virginia Beach, Va., defending his Facebook page that contains an unflattering photo of school founder Pat Robertson. Key, who now faces disciplinary action, was quoted by the Associated Press.

KRE/LF END RNS