Airline apologizes to Orthodox Jews. Alaska Airlines issued an apology for misinterpreting the devotional behavior of three Orthodox Jewish men on a flight from Mexico City to Los Angeles. The men had strapped on tefillin—black leather bindings and boxes worn on arms and heads during ritual prayer by some Jews—and were praying in Hebrew, ignoring requests from crew to remain seated during turbulence. Two of them visited the restroom while the third seemed to be “standing guard” in the aisle during the flight, which appeared suspicious, according to the airline’s statement. Flight attendants locked down the cockpit and radioed a security alert to the airport, where emergency personnel and law enforcement met the plane. The three men were questioned and released with no charges filed. Alaska Airlines will incorporate Orthodox Jewish practices into its diversity training and work with the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle to avoid such misunderstandings in the future, officials said.
Adventists see rapid growth. With Saturday worship services and vegetarian lifestyles, Seventh-day Adventism owns a distinctive niche outside the Christian mainstream. But being different is turning out to be more of an asset than a liability for the Seventh-day Adventist Church, the fastest-growing Christian denomination in North America. Newly released data show Seventh-day Adventism growing by 2.5 percent in North America. Adventists are even growing 75 percent faster than Mormons (1.4 percent), who prioritize numeric growth. But despite its roots in North America, the Seventh-day Adventist Church is growing twice as fast overseas. North America is home to just 1.1 million of the world’s 16 million Adventists.
Museum restores Jefferson’s Bible. A Smithsonian museum is restoring the “Jefferson Bible,” a unique volume the third president cut and pasted himself, omitting supernatural elements from portions of the New Testament. Thomas Jefferson assembled the book, The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth, in 1820 when he retired after two terms as president. Conservators at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History will repair the fragile book’s torn pages. The project, paid for by private and federal funds, will cost about $225,000. The Smithsonian’s librarian purchased the book from Jefferson’s great-granddaughter for $400 in 1895, said museum spokeswoman Valeska Hilbig.
Religious violence linked to Antichrist. Violence committed in God’s name is a tool of the Antichrist, Pope Benedict XVI writes in a new book on the life and teachings of Jesus. “Violence does not build up the kingdom of God, the kingdom of humanity,” Benedict writes. “On the contrary, it is a favorite instrument of the Antichrist, however idealistic its religious motivation may be. It serves not humanity, but inhumanity.” The passage appears in Jesus of Nazareth—Holy Week: From the Entrance into Jerusalem to the Resurrection, published in eight languages, with an initial printing of 1.2 million copies.
Compiled from Religion News Service