This one is interesting, but incomplete. Apparently, some Catholics are upset with certain Hollywood types for their habit of wearing crosses as jewelry. The official news service of the Vatican, Fides, has posted an opinion by Andrea Piersanti, who is apparently someone deemed worthy of speaking for Rome. She finds this habit "incomprehensible" and questions whether it is "consistent with the Gospel to spend millions on a copy of the sacred symbol of the Christian faith and perhaps forget that there are people all over the world who suffer and die of hunger". While I agree that it is rather disturbing to see the most well-known symbol of the Christian faith hanging around the necks of Jennifer Aniston and Catherine Zeta Jones, I am bothered for a different reason. The Vatican apparently would rather these people take the thousands of dollars spent on these pieces of jewelry and spend them instead to feed the poor. This is a noble and worthy cause, but I find it much worse that they would display the symbol of my faith while working in an industry that abuses and attacks that faith. Now, I would not dream of attempting to judge the status of these ladies' souls. That is the province of the Holy Spirit alone. I would, however, question how these ladies believe that appearing half-naked (or more) on the big and/or small screens serves to advance the teachings of the Palestinian carpenter whose torture device their jewelry commemorates.

On today's Fox News website are two stories. Each by itself would be merely interesting, perhaps, but the juxtaposition is fascinating. First, a stripper is disgusted that the private Christian school where she wants to send her daughter will not allow the girl to attend classes. She has quit her job for now, but may go back. She is not going to try to send the kindergartner to the school next year because she "wants to find a school less concerned with image and more concerned with the welfare of children". On the same Fox News page is a story about a cheerleader who was lured to her death by a man she met on the Internet. Students at her school are understandably devastated. With all of the evidence connecting porn use with sexual abuse, I propose that it is not a bad thing at all for a school to be "concerned with image".