Religion

Some apologetics for this week of off-beat fare: One of Fyodor Dostoyevsky's more clever and sinister characters (Peter Verkhovensky in The Demons) says of religion: The worse off a man is, the more downtrodden, the poorer–the more stubbornly he clings to the idea that it will

Keeping with our off-beat fare this week, we thought we'd present one of favorite passages from Dostoyevsky's writing. It's found in the “Thoughts and Teachings of the Elder Zossima” of The Brothers Karamazov. Fr. Zossima, the revered elder of Alyosha Karamazov, is dying.

> According to Maximus the Great, there are three different purposes for which gifted men write without fault or constraint: the first, as memoranda for themselves; the second, for the benefit of others; the third, for obedience. With this last purpose many writings have been composed for those who humbly

> Drive from the soul the vain thoughts about wealth, the excitement and distress related to it, the worries that are the thorns of existence and that suffocate the seed of life. Clement of Alexandra.

A vampire affiliated with the occult? Say it ain't so: > Diana Butenko, 29, lured homeless youngsters to her apartment saying she would feed them. > But she plied them with booze, got them to sniff glue then tied them to beds. Butenko – now under arrest – slashed their

In case you missed this new phrase: > Catholic evangelicals: This counterintuitive term identifies Roman Catholics who embrace much of the public-witness style of evangelical Protestants. “They have the fire and zeal usually associated with evangelicals,” said William Portier, a religious studies professor at the University of Dayton and

Christianity Today has a decent essay about the theology of golf. We say "decent" because it's not great. CT runs good essays, but there's always something missing. Oh well, if you like golf and religion, you'll get a kick out of this

> The Dalai Lama has admitted mosquitoes drive him crazy because his Buddhist faith rules he cannot kill them. > Even when the insects bite him, he is supposed to stay calm and just shoo them away instead. > Buddhists are not allowed to kill, but the Tibetan spiritual leader