» Continued from Part 2

=== Other News
31. Rival Surigao cults clash; 11 dead
32. Priest Stabbed While Investigating Sect
33. Spanish priest stabbed by suspected Satanists
34. Killed girl was 'possessed by the devil'
35. Green's Wife Retracts Her Abuse Story
36. Nuwaubian sues Putnam sheriff under open records law
37. Dec. 31 Deadline Spells End For Many Religious Groups (Russia)
38. Hungary's small churches, opposition, protest new religious law
39. Freedom of Religion bill passed, for now (Israel)
40. Indian protesters seek trial swear-in using pipe
41. Former dean sues college religious and gender bias
41a. Health inspection investigates Victory Outreach drug rehabilitation program

=== Death Penalty
42. The Texan way of death

=== Noted
43. A calling to the darker forces (Vampirism)
44. Religious E-tailers Spread Faith on the Web

=== The Comedian Around The Corner
45. Rabbi reaches past religious differences to lift the spirits - as a stand-up comedian


=== Other News

31. Rival Surigao cults clash; 11 dead
Manila Bulletin (Philippines), Dec. 16, 2000
http://www.mb.com.ph/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
At least 11 people were hacked to death last Wednesday night in a machete battle between rival cults at a cultist shrine in Surigao del Norte.

All the fatalities belonged to the Pulahan cult, who were attacked by members of the rival Philippine Benevolent Missionary Association (PBMA).
(...)

Police said about 100 Pulahan cult members led by Eddie Quiñanola attacked about 200 PBMA members in barangay Aurelio, San Jose town, at around 9:30 p.m. while the latter were meeting at the shrine mansion of their president, Ruben Ecleo Jr.

Pulahan members held their rivals besieged in the shrine building until Thursday morning when the captives, wearing amulets they say make them invincible, fought back with machetes, said Army Col. Leo Ferrer.
(...)

Policemen are searching for Pulahan cult leader Eddie Quinanola for questioning.

Caraga officials said they are exhausting all efforts to forestall further violence between the two cults as they dispatched a police platoon to the area. An Army unit was also sent to the place.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


32. Priest Stabbed While Investigating Sect
Reuters, Dec. 15, 2000
http://news.excite.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
MADRID (Reuters) - A Spanish priest was stabbed in the ribs while investigating reports that a religious sect was performing rituals near the city of Valencia, church officials said Friday.

Priscilio Ruiz Picazo, 42, remained hospitalized Friday following the attack late Wednesday.

''I don't know if my aggressor had some relation or not with what I was going to investigate,'' Ruiz told the Valencian church news agency AVAN. ''Physically I feel much better, although I'm still a little confused about what happened.''

Church spokesmen could provide no further information about the sect.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


33. Spanish priest stabbed by suspected Satanists
Independent/Sapa-DPA, Dec. 15, 2000
http://www.iol.co.za/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
(...) On Wednesday, he received a phone call from a presumed sect member who either asked for help to leave the sect or offered to give him information, said the reports.

Father Ruiz went to meet the caller in the port of Gandia south of Valencia where he was attacked and stabbed in the back. The priest managed to get to his car and flee.

There are at least a dozen sects in the eastern Valencia region, many of them dedicated to the worship of Satan, the reports said. Father Ruiz is a sect specialist with the Bishops' Conference, the highest organ of the Spanish Catholic Church.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


34. Killed girl was 'possessed by the devil'
Ananova (England), Dec. 13, 2000
http://www.ananova.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
A bus driver has told a London murder trial that he beat a little girl because he believed she was possessed by the devil.

But Carl Manning, 28, has told the Old Bailey he did not intend to kill Anna Climbie, eight, who died in February from hypothermia after being made to sleep in a bath over four months.

Manning says Anna's great-aunt Marie-Therese Kouao, 44, had told him the girl was possessed by witchcraft soon after they met and became lovers last summer. The couple deny murder although Manning has admitted manslaughter and child cruelty.

Asked by his counsel Nigel Rumfitt QC, whether it was true that Kouao had told him that in witchcraft, evil spirits would treat him badly if he showed affection to Anna, he replied: ''Yes sir.''
(...)

A Home Office pathologist has told the hearing this was the worst case of child abuse he had seen. There were 128 marks on her body and she had been starved over a long period of time.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


35. Green's Wife Retracts Her Abuse Story
Salt Lake Tribune, Dec. 15, 2000
http://www.sltrib.com/12152000/utah/53899.htm
[Story no longer online? Read this]
NEPHI -- A wife of admitted polygamist Tom Green testified Thursday that statements she made to a juvenile court official that she was molested by Green in 1989 when she was 13 were false.

LeeAnn Beagley said she made the false accusations on the advice of her stepmother.
(...)

Green is charged with child rape for having sex with his first wife, Linda Kunz Green when she was 13 years old in 1986.

Fourth District Judge Guy Burningham has pledged to toss out felony child-rape charges against Green if he can show that police knew about the alleged illegal relationship between Green and Linda Kunz Green.

The child-rape charges allege that Green conceived a child with Linda Kunz Green in 1986. At the time, Utah law required such charges be filed no longer than four years after the crime or up to a year after an initial police report, but no longer than eight years after the crime. Lawmakers altered the statute in 1991, requiring only that charges be filed no longer than four years after the crime was first reported.

In August, Burningham ruled that since the law changed in 1991, three years before the eight-year statute of limitations would have expired on a 1986 child rape, the new statute could be applied retroactively. If Green, however, could prove a police investigation was filed, the charge -- which could put him behind bars for up to life -- would be dropped.
(...)

Also on Thursday, Jay Slaugh testified that as a friend of Green's in 1986, he reported that Green was marrying girls younger than 14.

When asked about his own alleged polygamist lifestyle, Slaugh took the Fifth Amendment against self-incrimination on the advise of Burningham.

The defense hopes to prove that authorities knew of the alleged abuse within the time frame of the statute of limitations, but took no action.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


36. Nuwaubian sues Putnam sheriff under open records law
The Macon Telegraph, Dec. 14, 2000
http://web.philly.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
EATONTON - A member of the United Nuwaubian Nation of Moors filed suit against Putnam County Sheriff Howard Sills Tuesday alleging violations of Georgia's open records laws.

Four hours after the suit was filed, an attorney representing Putnam County filed an answer to the suit and a counterclaim seeking to force Gwen Lipford to pay $113.95 for the records she requested.

In a letter dated Sept. 27, Lipford requested to ''inspect and obtain copies'' of ''all documented incident reports'' for 16 individuals. All are either officials in Putnam County or related to those officials.

''I deny the allegations made (in Lipford's suit),'' Sills said Wednesday. ''I complied fully with the statute. ... I had it ready for her on the 29th.''

In a letter to Lipford dated Sept. 29, Sills wrote that retrieval of the documents took in excess of nine hours. He charged Lipford $113.95 for the information - 25 cents each for copies of the 180 pages of incident reports and $7.88 per hour for the time involved in retrieving the documents.
(...)

Sills said the $113.95 he charged is within the law for copies and the time it took to get the incident reports, some of which date back to 1986.

In her suit, though, Lipford claims, ''Such hourly rate exceeded the salary of the lowest paid full-time employee who had the necessary skills and training to perform the request.''
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


37. Dec. 31 Deadline Spells End For Many Religious Groups
The Moscow Times (Russia), Dec. 16, 2000
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
Hundreds and perhaps thousands of religious organizations around the country are unlikely to meet a Dec. 31 deadline for re-registration and thus may be forced to disband or severely limit their activities, a prominent religious rights lawyer said Friday.

Only 56 percent of about 17,500 organizations registered under a 1991 law on religion had been re-registered by July under a stricter 1997 law, Alexander Kudryavtsev, a presidential administration official in charge of relations with religious organizations, said Friday. More recent figures are not available, he said.
(...)

But small churches of religious organizations new to Russia, often described as ''sects,'' are likely to be downgraded to ''groups,'' said Pchelintsev, head of the Law and Religion Institute. They would thus lose their right to hold services in public places, distribute literature, own property or invite foreign guests.

Pchelintsev said that across Russia, authorities have been particularly hard on Pentecostal groups, often denying them registration for ridiculous reasons.

In Cheboksary, he said, a Pentecostal group was initially refused registration on the grounds that it prayed for healing without having a medical license.

The Moscow branch of the Salvation Army was recently denied registration on the grounds that as an ''army,'' it represents a ''security threat.'' Kudryavtsev, however, said the decision was ''illiterate'' and predicted the Salvation Army would eventually be registered.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


38. Hungary's small churches, opposition, protest new religious law
AFP, Dec. 16, 2000
http://sg.dailynews.yahoo.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
Opposition politicians and the leaders of several small churches accused the Hungarian government of religious discrimination Friday over a new law on church funding that favours the larger denominations.

The protesters are to go to the constitutional court to challenge a legal amendment approved by deputies this week, which they say deprives them of potentially large private offerings.

''Small churches have started coordinating to appeal to the constitutional court. So far, 15 have joined but I believe many more will join the appeal,'' said Krisztina Danka, spokesperson for Hungary's Krishna-believers.

Until this week under Hungarian law, taxpayers could ask that one percent of their personal income tax be paid to a religious denomination of their choice rather than to the treasury.

Under the new legislation, tabled by a deputy of conservative Prime Minister Viktor Orban's Fidesz party and approved in parliament this week, the one percent can only go to churches that fulfil certain conditions.

These include ''churches with the support of at least one percent of taxpayers, churches that have been present in Hungary for at least 100 years, or have worked in an organised form in Hungary for at least 30 years.''

The new legislation arbitrarily discriminated in the favour of large churches, said Danka.

Out of nearly 100 Hungarian denominations, only the Catholic, the Reformed, the Jewish and the Evangelical churches met the conditions, the small churches warned.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


39. Freedom of Religion bill passed, for now
Ha'aretz (Israel), Dec. 14, 2000
http://www3.haaretz.co.il/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
A bill for a Basic Law guaranteeing freedom of choice of religion was approved yesterday in a preliminary reading in the Knesset by a vote of 37 MKs to 34.

The Basic Law bill was initiated by MK Naomi Chazan (Meretz), who said that the purpose of the law was to protect the freedom of religion and conscience by anchoring Israel as a Jewish and democratic state.

''The freedom of religion, belief and conscience of every person is guaranteed,'' states the bill. ''No person can be forced to belong to a religion, a religious community or a religious [group] of any kind. Freedom of religious practice and the preservation of individual or public religious beliefs are protected.''

The bill also aims to settle relations in Israel between religion and the state and is moving toward two main goals: Separating religion and state in order to affirm Israel's identity as a democracy; to equate between the various branches Judaism in Israel, thereby preserving Jewish pluralism in the country.
(...)

Opposition to the bill came from the ultra-Orthodox MKs but also from within the Likud and One Nation.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


40. Indian protesters seek trial swear-in using pipe
Denver Post, Dec. 15, 2000
http://www.denverpost.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
Dec. 15, 2000 - Some Columbus Day parade protesters who face trials for obstructing the event want to hold a traditional pipe while swearing to tell the truth instead of holding up their right hands.

Attorneys for the American Indian protesters filed a motion, scheduled to be heard by judges today, seeking to allow them to use a pipe as their method of swearing in before giving testimony.

''The pipe is an affirmation of telling the truth rather than subscribing to some foreign, Western or Christian way,'' said Glenn Morris, a Colorado director of the American Indian Movement.

Morris said there is precedent for using the pipe in court. It was used for the swearing-in process during AIM leader Russell Means' 1992 trial for protesting Columbus Day, he said.
(...)

Prosecutors argue that the pipe would taint the proceedings. ''Witnesses are not required to swear on the Bible or any other sacred object,'' their motion said. ''By requesting certain witnesses be allowed to ''swear on the sacred pipe,' the defendants seek to improperly enhance the credibility of theses witnesses.''
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


41. Former dean sues college religious and gender bias
The Boston Globe, Dec. 14, 2000
http://www.boston.com
[Story no longer online? Read this]
When Bryan O'Neil was fired, he says, no one told him why. As an academic dean at Middlesex Community College, he had always received good reviews. A month earlier, he had been rewarded with a merit pay raise.

But now, three years later, O'Neil says he has figured out why the mostly female administration was so eager to get rid of him: because he is a man and because he is openly religious.
(...)

O'Neil is suing the college, asking for his job back and $1.25 million in compensation for lost salary and his damaged reputation.

His reverse discrimination lawsuit charges that administrators fired him because he complained that his less-qualified female colleagues were making more money than he was. And, he argues, college administrators wanted to squelch his plans to create a campus spiritual organization.

O'Neil has already lost one battle. Last summer, the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination dismissed a similar complaint that O'Neil had filed.
(...)

O'Neil started working at Bedford's Middlesex Community College in 1987 as an assistant professor of business administration. In 1989, he was promoted to chairman of his division.

But the trouble began in 1996, O'Neil contends, when he, an elder in his Presbyterian church, began meeting at lunchtime with a few like-minded colleagues: a Catholic, a Seventh Day Adventist, and a Jehovah's Witness.
(...)

Eventually, they began to talk about creating a religious group for students of different faiths, including Christians, Hindus, and Muslims. Some students had said they'd be interested in such a group, O'Neil said.
(...)

But then, he said, he began to feel tension with his supervisors. Administrators urged him to abandon plans for the spiritual group, he said. One official told him administrators had been trying to keep religious groups off campus for years, he said.

Since Middlesex Community College is a state school, he said he was told, a campus religious group would violate the separation of church and state under the US Constitution. Administrators also discouraged the lunchtime meetings, he said.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


41a. Health inspection investigates Victory Outreach drug rehabilitation program
Algemeen Dagblad (Netherlands), Dec. 9, 2000
[Unofficial abstract]
http://archief.ad.nl/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
The [Dutch] Health Inspection is investigating Victory Outreach's drug rehabilitation program, claiming the program lacks proper medical guidance.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


=== Death Penalty

42. The Texan way of death
The Guardian (England), Dec. 13, 2000
http://www.guardianunlimited.co.uk/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
Almost every arithmetic total has been a matter of debate in this year's extraordinary election, but there is one count which Governor George W Bush won with an indisputable margin.

Under Governor Bush's leadership this year, Texas has carried out more executions than any other state since US records began. Forty prisoners were put to death - representing nearly half the total number of executions across the country.
(...)

The ever-upwards trend in the Lone Star state runs against the tide in the rest of the country, where increasing doubts about the infallibility of the judicial system, in the wake of a string of well-publicised exonerations, have led to greater caution.

Eighty-four prisoners have been executed in the US this year compared to 98 last year, and no more executions are scheduled until January. The number of defendants sentenced to death has also declined.

The moratorium on the death penalty declared early in the year in Illinois, after new evidence revealed a host of miscarriages of justices, probably contributed to the slowdown. So did a justice department inquiry into the imposition of capital punishment by the federal government, which found that minorities were grossly over-represented on death row.

There has been no such introspection in Texas, despite the state's relative lack of safeguards. Unlike most other states, Texas has no public defender's office to assign legal representation to poor defendants. Instead defence lawyers are assigned by local courts, which have severely limited budgets and where the elected judges are under popular pressure not to spend money on suspected murderers and rapists.
(...)

The Texas court of criminal appeals seldom spends much more than a day considering death penalty cases and usually does not publish the reasoning behind its decisions. The Texas governor does not have the power to grant clemency directly, but he does appoint the state parole board, which does decide each case, and previous experience demonstrates that the board tends to follow hints and cues from the governor's mansion.

Yet Mr Bush has never exuded anything less than total confidence that the system works smoothly and sends the right people to be lethally injected in the state death chamber.

Mr Bush's nonchalance fits the overwhelmingly pro-death penalty mood in his state, so it will be interesting to see how he acts in the national arena. If elected, he will be called on to decide what to do about Juan Garza, a confessed murderer on the federal government's death row.
(...)

Mr Bush's treatment of the issue will set the tone for the country. He can either allow the present reappraisal to continue or bring it to an abrupt close. It will also be an important test of whether, once you have taken the governor out of Texas, you can take the Texan out of Mr Bush.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


=== Noted

43. A calling to the darker forces
Amarillo Globe-News/Religion News Service, Dec. 14, 2000
http://www.amarillonet.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
(...) Strathloch is a vampire. He is one of 300,000 or so people worldwide who consider themselves practitioners of a vampire religion. Strathloch comes from a Welsh father and a Russian-Romanian mother, but he was raised by his druid grandparents in Wales. Three of his 14 brothers are also vampires.

Vampires come from all walks of life: Many are scholars, artists and teachers; and a few are members of the clergy. Los Angeles has one of the largest concentrations of vampires; many also live in Japan, Rome, Vienna and London. India has a sizable following of vampires devoted to Kali, the Hindu goddess of creation and destruction.

Vampires experience a calling to the darker forces and an affinity to a nocturnal lifestyle. Many claim psychic powers and the ability to leave their own bodies and take up residence in others' bodies. Some say they can actually fly and enter people's dreams.
(...)

Strathloch has been a practicing vampire for 40 years. He is a Vampire Master Adept, the highest grade of recognition within the Temple of the Vampire. The Washington state-based organization is an international church with its own hierarchy and strict criteria for membership.

Other organizations such as Order of the Dragon, the Vampire Church, House Kheperu, and the Vampire Grove adhere to similar tenets of the vampire religion.

The Count Dracula of movie and literary fame notwithstanding, today's vampires don't bite the necks of unwilling victims and have no aversion to garlic or crucifixes.

But many vampires do admit to having a ''blood fetish'' - a strong desire to taste human blood, usually in the context of an intimate relationship.
(...)

But selfishness, or self-gratification, is at the core of vampire philosophy. Strathloch describes the vampire religion as an exaltation of the ego, a belief in the superiority to humans. Although vampires are occult practitioners and draw upon the dark energies, they don't recognize the existence of the devil or a god.

''The only ones we serve are us. (We're) very egocentric,'' Strathloch said.

''They feel they're superior in a supernatural sort of way, not a racial way,'' said J. Gordon Melton, director of the Institute of the Study of American Religion in Santa Barbara, Calif., and author of ''The Vampire Book: The Encyclopedia of the Undead.'' Melton was an organizer for ''Dracula 97 - The Vampire Event of the Century,'' a convention in Los Angeles celebrating the centennial publication of Bram Stoker's acclaimed novel, ''Dracula.''

According to Melton, many vampire beliefs and practices grew out of the Free Masons and other magickal orders of 19th-century England and France. ''Magick'' refers to the art of spiritual control and change.

Melton said Aleister Crowley, a British theoretician of modern magick, revised the whole magickal world view into a self-centered experience. ''Magick is (about) becoming a master, becoming a person who affects the environment, not the other way around,'' Melton said.

The French spiritualists viewed vampires as reanimated corpses who fed off living people. ''What (vampires) really were stealing was psychic energy,'' Melton said.

Modern satanic groups - the Church of Satan and the Temple of Set - also influenced contemporary vampire religion.

''Psychic vampirism became a very important part of the occult subculture,'' Melton said of satanic organizations that include vampires. ''It grew out of the same world view.''

Much of Western society has always had a skeptical world view of vampires. European folklore portrayed vampires as dangerous, blood-sucking creatures; and in the 1700s, waves of vampire hysteria swept across Eastern Europe and Russia. Even today, many practicing vampires relate stories of intimidation by other religious groups.

''Vampirism has always been opposed, like satanism, because it was seen as a parody of Christianity,'' said Melton.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]

* Like fellow cult apologist Massimo Introvigne, director of CESNUR, Melton is
interested in vampires, on which he has written ''The Vampire Book: An
Encyclopedia of the Undead'' (Visible Ink Press, 1994), and produced a video
guide: ''Videohound's Vampires On Video'' (Visible Ink Press, March, 1997).

Both Melton and Introvigne are members of the The Transylvanian Society of
Dracula - an association dedicated to the study of Dracula and vampires.
Massimo Introvigne presides over the Italian chapter of the, and Melton heads
the American chapter (which he founded). See also this letter from
Introvigne, in which includes information about the society.

Gordon Melton also was one of the organizers of ''Dracula 97 - The Vampire
Event of the Century,'' at which he appeared dressed as Dracula.

44. Religious E-tailers Spread Faith on the Web
Newsfactor Network, Dec. 15, 2000
http://www.newsfactor.com/
(...) In an attempt to spread the word of God, some e-tailers run the risk of turning the Internet into exactly the kind of bazaar that made Jesus Christ cringe nearly 2,000 years ago.

And it's not just Christians who have put faith and commerce together on the Web, but Jews, Muslims, Mormons, and Buddhists, too, prompting some in the spiritual world to wonder if there's a limit to how much faith should be put online.

To some, religions of the world risk establishing an unholy alliance with the Internet.

''[The commercialization of religion] is always a huge concern for us,'' said Franklin Lewis, president of Mstar.Net, an Internet development company that was spun off last year by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (LDS) to drive its global online initiatives.

For leaders of the LDS church, Salt Lake City, the potential conflict of religion and e-business was so high on their minds that they abandoned plans to let the Web-development shop evolve into a full-fledged business, for fear it would be too closely tied to the church's overall mission.
(...)

The Internet is a huge concern for the church because it has become the most important platform to expand and solidify its message throughout the world in the 21st century.

Other faiths are similarly wrestling with the issue. It's become a weighty dilemma because, as many religious leaders point out, the Internet has great potential for helping religious organizations influence more people.

For some, it is emerging as the medium of choice for delivering spiritual messages.

But using the Web to spread faith raises any number of difficult questions, not the least of which is the role religious convictions and morality issues play in deciding how churches or religiously affiliated organizations leverage Internet technology.

What's more, there are inherent questions lurking behind this market about the commercialization of religion.

In reality, this problem is nothing new. Religious entities and spiritual leaders have long wrestled with incorporating technology into their faiths.
(...)

Christian research company Barna Research Group, Ventura, Calif., estimates that 25 million people currently use the Internet for some form of religious expression. Furthermore, approximately 22 percent of new and established Internet users say they regularly go to the Web for spiritual and religious information, according to a recent Web usage study by the Pew Internet & American Life Project, Washington.
(...)

According to Yahoo!, there are 34,050 Web sites associated with some form of spiritual or religious content, with 36 different online directories available for religious searches. But industry experts say the actual number of religiously oriented sites nearly doubles that figure.

In some cases, the identity may be a small informational page posted from the basement of a Web-savvy congregant to let people know what's going on at their local temple, church or mosque. In others, it's an initiative to create a diocese-wide Internet site where parishioners can learn about parish and school activities, read scripture, and even make online donations.

But what about the growing number of online retail sites that operate as virtual spiritual communities while selling a variety of merchandise, such as books, CDs and inspirational items? Have these e-tailing organizations -- often backed by venture capitalists, not evangelists or nonprofit religious groups -- crossed the line between spirituality and business?
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


=== The Comedian Around The Corner

45. Rabbi reaches past religious differences to lift the spirits - as a stand-up comedian
The Tennessean, Dec. 16, 2000
http://www.tennessean.com/
Rabbi Bob Alper's mentors are Moses, Isaiah and Bob Newhart.

Alper's a clergyman and a comedian. Sometimes it's hard to keep them straight.

''We celebrate Hanukkah the traditional way at home - we light candles, exchange gifts, sing songs and listen to the TV anchors try to pronounce Hanukkah,'' he cracked this week.

Alper calls himself the world's only practicing clergyman who does stand-up comedy … intentionally.
(...)

Alper had a career as a rabbi in Philadelphia, weaving humor into his sermons, but he decided to get serious about comedy after entering a ''Jewish Comic of the Year'' competition in 1986. He finished third, behind a lawyer and a chiropractor.

Nevertheless, he plunged in full-time. He's based in Vermont with his family, but performs regularly at congregations, theaters and conventions. He works as a rabbi only during the high holy days. He's author of Life Doesn't Get Any Better Than This and a cartoon book A Rabbi Confesses.
(...)

Alper, 55, said his humor is G-rated and religion-friendly. He tries to keep his ''Judaically challenged'' audiences in mind, too.

''Ninety-five percent of my act can be appreciated by audiences of any faith. For the other 5 percent I use flash cards,'' he said.
(...)

''I told my audience I only have one comment about that: I really hope George W. Bush is elected president. I say that not as a husband, not as a father or a rabbi. I say that as a comedian.''

Alper finds himself in a long cultural line of Jewish comedians, but as a seminary-trained Reform rabbi he's capable of sobering reflections about his honored tradition and craft.

''Humor is portable: If you're kicked out of one country, you can carry it into another,'' he said. ''Jewish humor is also a response to persecution and sadness. There's a holiness in humor. It increases health and raises the spirits. It's a healthy thing that Jews use. And Jews are really in love with language. Good comedy is a linguistic exercise that requires precision.''
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]