FRANCISCAN UNIVERSITY, July 13-The number of Catholics organizing at-home Bible studies is on the rise and other Catholics should be encouraged to do the same. This was the message heard by 300 participants who gathered from 33 states, Puerto Rico and Canada to attend the Fifth Annual Institute of Applied Biblical Studies Conference at Franciscan University of Steubenville, July 7-9.

“We must not be afraid of the Bible. We should look at it like a big sandbox. It has boundaries, but jump into it, have fun, explore the love of the Father like a child,” said Jeff Cavins, host of EWTN's Life on the Rock.

Cavins co-hosted the conference with Scott Hahn, a professor at Franciscan University whose name has become synonymous with Catholic apologetics over the past several years through his widely distributed tapes on re-discovering and understanding the Catholic Faith.

In the opening talk, “The Father's Love Revealed,” Hahn spoke about how “God's fingerprints are all over the Scriptures” showing his love for each person as members of God's family. “Reading the Bible,” Hahn said, “can transform Catholics from being God's faithful employees … to becoming his faithful sons and daughters.”

During the conference Cavins presented the ideal Catholic Bible study as fun and not too serious,” while adding that “we must also read the Bible within some guidelines. Catholics read Scripture in the light of sacred Tradition. Today, so many people make the mistake of wrenching the Scriptures out of the context of the Church,” Cavins added.

The three-day conference covered topics like “How to Lead a Catholic Bible Study,” and “Ten Keys to Catholic Bible Study,” discussing not only the why, but also the how of studying Scripture within the context of sacred Tradition. Other leading Scripture scholars speaking were Karl Keating, founder of Catholic Answers, a Catholic apologetics organization; Tim Gray, assistant professor of Scripture at the Notre Dame Graduate School of Christendom College; Dr. Stephen Miletic, associate professor of sacred Scripture and catechetics at Franciscan University; and Steve Wood, founder of the Family Life Center.

Each summer Franciscan University hosts over 20 conferences for adults, teens and religious.

Mississippi School Board Bans Religious Symbols

CATHOLIC LEAGUE-Citing concerns over gangs who wear six-pointed stars, a Mississippi school board has announced that the Star of David is now banned from school property. The board also considered banning crosses, but decided not to after deliberation, the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights reported in an Aug. 20 statement.

Harrison County schools superintendent Henry Arledge justified the board's decision by saying it was done to protect the welfare of the students.

The American Civil Liberties Union filed a suit in U.S. District Court on Aug. 20 representing a Jewish student who was ordered to remove the Jewish symbol.

Catholic League president William Donohue spelled out his organization's position on the ban. “Ridding the schools of violence is a must, but it cannot be done by sacrificing religious liberties in the process. The decision by the Harrison County school board was at the very least ignoble and at the worst anti-Semitic. Either way, the Catholic League sees a vital religious liberty at stake and will file an amicus brief against the school board, presuming the case moves beyond the district level,” Donohue said.

Animals Over People?

CRISIS, July/August-Contributing editor Michael Uhlmann wrote that the views of Peter Singer, Princeton University's recently appointed professor of bioethics and a proponent of infanticide, represent the natural outcome of legalized abortion.

“In Singer's view, human infants are, at best, only presumptively rights-bearing creatures. For at least a couple of months after a child is born, he says, the law should recognize a parental rights to kill their off-spring,” Uhlmann wrote, adding, “In so arguing, of course, Singer is doing little more than extending the logic of Roe v. Wade to children already born-a proposition that would perhaps shock the conscience of the late Harry Blackmun, thought there is little in his opinion … to prevent that extension. Singer's razor shreds the pretense of decency that shrouds for many the barbarism of the Court's reasoning.”