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1. Rick Warren, criticized for Syria trip, says he was misquoted
After criticism from the Institute on Religion and Democracy and some other quarters for visiting Syria and meeting with President Bashar Al-Assad, Foreign Minister Walid Al-Mu'allim, Higher Education Minister Ghiath Barakat, and Grand Mufti Sheikh Badr al-Din Hassoun, Saddleback Church pastor Rick Warren says his trip was misrepresented both by the government-controlled Syrian media and U.S. bloggers. In a letter to church members and others, he wrote:

In hindsight, I wish we'd been better prepared for our visit to Syria. We would have handled some meetings differently, watched our words more closely, and been more aware of the agenda of their state press. We wanted to just slip in and out, but that's nearly impossible for me to do anymore. It's been a learning experience. … As we left, the official state-controlled Syrian news agency issued some press releases that sounded like I was a politician negotiating the Iraq war by praising the Syrian president and everything else in Syria! Of course, that's ridiculous, but it created a stir among bloggers who tend to editorialize before verifying the truth. Does it seem ironic to you that people who distrust Syria are now believing Syrian press releases?

Warren's office has also issued a press release explaining that the visit to Syria "was neither official nor political, but rather came out of a promise to his Muslim neighbor in California." There are, however, some political statements in the press release: recognition of the Syrian government's treatment of its Christians and its welcoming of Iraqi Christian refugees, for example, as well as some encouragement for more dialogue between the U.S. and Syrian governments.

2. William and Mary removes cross from chapel
Gene R. Nichol, president of the College of William and Mary, America's second-oldest college, last month ordered the removal of the bronze cross from the school's Wren Chapel. This week, Nichol explained his decision:

Though we haven't meant to do so, the display of a Christian cross—the most potent symbol of my own religion in the heart of our most important building—sends an unmistakable message that the chapel belongs more fully to some of us than to others. That there are, at the college, insiders and outsiders. Those for whom our most revered place is meant to be keenly welcoming, and those for whom presence is only tolerated. That distinction, I believe to be contrary to the best values of the college.

It is precisely because the Wren Chapel touches the best in us—the brightened lamp, the extended hand, the opened door, the call of character, the charge of faith, the test of courage—that it is essential it belong to everyone. There is no alternate Wren Chapel, no analogous venue, no substitute space. Nor could there be. The Wren is no mere museum or artifact. It touches every student who enrolls at the college. It defines us. And it must define us all.

Judging from Google News, the debate seems to be heating up. The William and Mary after whom the college is named, by the way, became King and Queen of England in order to secure the country's Protestant character.

3. Some people don't like Eric Keroack
The Washington Post's front page today calls attention to Eric Keroack, the new chief of family-planning programs at the Department of Health and Human Services.

"The Keroack appointment angered many family-planning advocates, who noted that A Woman's Concern [an organization where Keroack has served as medical director] supports sexual abstinence until marriage, opposes contraception, and does not distribute information promoting birth control at its six centers in eastern Massachusetts," writes the Post's Christopher Lee.

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November (Web-only) 2006, Vol. 50