Mid-City Christian: Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly

Following is a brief outline of the stories Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly will be covering this week. SPECIAL NOTE: Because the show may be pre-empted in several markets due to special PBS Pledge programming scheduled through March 15, three of following reports listed are being rebroadcast and are already available online. To see the transcript and streaming video of the studio discussion, visit our Web site after 8:30 p.m. this Friday.

FEATURED SEGMENTS

Stem Cell Dilemmas
President Barack Obama has lifted restrictions on federal funding for stem cell research, reversing the Bush administration's previous policy prohibiting the use of any government money for research on human embryonic stem cell lines. While scientists say Obama's repeal of this ban will lead to medical breakthroughs, many religious groups are opposed to it. David Masci, senior research fellow at the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, joins Kim Lawton for a studio discussion about the ethical implications and controversies raised by President Obama's new stem cell policy.

Barefoot College in India
For 36 years, Barefoot College in the Indian state of Rajasthan has strived to provide solutions to rural problems by engaging the community. Founded by Indian social activist Bunker Roy in 1972 with the goal of combining traditional knowledge and sustainable technology to help the surrounding impoverished desert region, its primary focus today is on the use of solar energy to electrify rural areas across the developing world. But the students assisting in this effort don't fit the typical engineering profile. Instead they are mostly women, many illiterate and even some grandmothers, who have come from across India and a dozen other countries to learn how to become solar technicians. Fred de Sam Lazaro traveled to Rajasthan for a first-hand look at how the College's mission is having a far-reaching impact — on both the women it teaches and the community they serve. (Rebroadcast from September 19, 2008)

Kathleen Norris
Poet and writer Kathleen Norris has won many admirers among religious believers. She first became popular in the ‘90s with a story about her relocation to the Great Plains from New York City in the book “Dakota” and then authored three more, including “Amazing Grace, “The Cloister Walk” and the “Virgin of Bennington” before she retreated from the literary world for almost 10 years. Now with the publication of her newest memoir “Acedia and Me,” the author is breaking her nearly decade-long literary silence and sharing the reasons for her absence. Bob Abernethy talks to Norris about how her personal experiences have shaped her latest work, especially the title, which explains what she calls her ongoing spiritual gloom. “The last 10 years, I would say, have been really rough,” the reclusive author explains. “This book is a miracle for me because I was able to finish it at all. There were so many temptations, especially after my husband died, to just give up and say, ‘Why write at all? Why bother?' — which is the ultimate question with acedia.” (Rebroadcast from November 14, 2008)

Zoroastrian New Year
Zoroastrians, followers of the Prophet Zoroaster in ancient Persia, are preparing to celebrate their New Year known as “Norooz,” which begins on the day of the spring equinox. To commemorate this occasion, seven objects beginning with the letter “s” or “sh” in Persian are laid out in an elaborate table setting known as the Haft Seen Table. Family members traditionally gather around the table waiting for the New Year to be announced and afterwards exchange gifts, flowers and small mirrors — which represent the sacredness of light. Farzad Aidun shares his family's celebration of Norooz from their home in Gaithersburg, Maryland. (Rebroadcast from March 23, 2007)

ONLY ONLINE

Northern Ireland
There were peace vigils in Northern Ireland this week to protest the killings of a policeman and two British soldiers. Revisit Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly's Easter 2005 story on reconciliation in Northern Ireland. And read Web-only commentary by a Benedictine monk in Northern Ireland after the IRA ended its armed struggle.

William Shakespeare
This week scholars and art historians in London unveiled a portrait of Shakespeare that they say is the only known likeness painted in his lifetime. Might Shakespeare have been a Catholic? Revisit our Web exclusive essay.

Tibet
On March 9, the Dalai Lama marked the 50th anniversary of Tibet's uprising against China. Watch our June 2008 report on political Buddhism. And read the extended interview with Harvard Chinese history and Confucian studies professor Tu Weiming.

Turkey
President Barack Obama will go to Turkey next month. Revisit our 2006 report on secular Islamic Turkey. And read Kim Lawton's full interview about Turkey with Georgetown University religion, international affairs, and Islamic studies professor John Esposito.

WHAT'S AHEAD

March 20: “Jewish Reaction to the Madoff Scandal" — Betty Rollin explores the impact and consequences of the Madoff scandal on the Jewish non-profit world and community.

ONE NATION

See more of Kim Lawton's interview with David Masci on the stem cell debate.

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.

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