Mid-City Christian: Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly

Following is a brief outline of the stories Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly will be covering this week. Every Friday evening, the transcript and streaming video of each report will available on our Web site . Please note that in case of breaking news, stories may be subject to change.

FEATURED SEGMENTS

Juvenile Life Without Parole
In March 2005, the U.S. Supreme Court abolished the death penalty for juvenile offenders, ruling 5-to-4 that it was unconstitutional to sentence anyone to death for a crime committed before the age of 18. The Court's decision, which overturned a 1989 ruling that upheld capital punishment for 16- and 17-year-old offenders, concluded that the punishment was grossly disproportionate to the crime and reflected the Justices' desire to end the nation's international isolation on the issue. Yet today, the U.S. remains the only western Democracy that sentences juveniles to life in prison with no parole for serious offenses — despite growing resistance from those who claim that however bad the crime, it's wrong for society to ever give up on its children. Do young criminals deserve a second chance?

Tim O'Brien reports on this controversial judicial debate. “Placing children in adult prisons for life is a death sentence for children,” says law professor Paolo Annino, who runs the “Children in Prison Project” at Florida State University.” Do we want to do that as a society? Do we want to ignore our Western traditions? One part of our Western tradition is called ‘redemption.' And for many people in our culture, redemption is an important value.” But Judge J. Rogers Padgett, with the Hillsborough County Circuit Court in Florida, counters: “There are some crimes that these people have committed that simply have no redemption. The public, the victim, and the public in general who know about the crime are looking for retribution.”

Shaolin Fighting Monks
For hundreds of years, Buddhist monks from central China's Shaolin Temple were considered legendary warriors because of their expertise in the marital arts, particularly kung fu, which they used to defend one Chinese emperor after another. But the monks' mastery and use of these combat skills were not intended to cause harm to others, but rather to cultivate a deeper spiritual enlightenment based on the combined fundamental philosophies of Buddhism and Taoism..

Lucky Severson explores how today's Shaolin monks are using kung fu as an instrument for spiritual enlightenment and renewal. “This is not actually about harming human beings. It's not even necessarily about defending oneself,” says Berkley professor of religious studies Robert Sharf. “It's really a form of personal cultivation.”

ONLY ONLINE

John Updike, 1932 – 2009
Religion figures prominently in the novels, stories, poems, and essays of the writer John Updike, who died on January 27 and who has been described as "the last great American man of letters." Read our 2004 Web-exclusive piece on the Pulitzer Prize-winning author and religion.

Holocaust Remembrance
January 27 was the UN's International Holocaust Remembrance Day. See the R&E 2007 story on a powerful exhibition at New York's Yeshiva University Museum.

Holocaust Reconciliation
Revisit a city in Poland that once had 10,000 Jews, and now has none.

Holocaust Forgiveness
Hear the story of a survivor who forgave the unforgivable — the crimes of Auschwitz.

WHAT'S AHEAD

February 6: “Darwin at 200" — Fred de Sam Lazaro reports on the continuing debate over Charles Darwin's theory of evolution, which continues to sharply divide Americans across the country.

ONE NATION

Hear what Archbishop Wilton D. Gregory with the Catholic Archdiocese of Atlanta and Rabbi Michael Lerner, editor of “Tikkun,” have to say about the first 100 days of the Obama administration.

THE LIFE OF MEANING

The companion book to Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly, now available in paperback in bookstores nationwide, can also be ordered through Shop Thirteen. “The Life of Meaning,” edited by the program's executive editor and host Bob Abernethy and longtime journalist William Bole, features a collection of insightful, moving and eloquent observations on life and how to live it by some of the most thoughtful men and women in America, and beyond. Among them are Desmond Tutu, Francis Collins, Marianne Williamson, Irving Greenberg, Barbara Brown Taylor, Harold Kushner, Madeleine L'Engle, Seyyed Hossein Nasr, Jimmy Carter and the late William Sloane Coffin.

DAILY NEWS HEADLINES

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