Comics I 10B WHOM TO CONTACT Galen Holley, I Abby I 11B FAITH RREELLIIGGIIOONN Religion Editor 678-1510 & I & SATURDAY, OCTOBER 31, 2009 PAGE 7B Briefing INDIANA ‘Praying robber’ suspect seeks mercy I INDIANAPOLIS – He may have hugged the clerk. He may have prayed with her, too. But prosecutors say Gregory Smith’s contrition during a crime in progress doesn’t change the fact he still robbed a check cashing store. URPLE A judge entered a not guilty P plea Tuesday for Smith, who ap- peared on “The Oprah Winfrey Show” last week after a security video showing a gunman pray- ing with clerk Angela Montez during an Oct. 19 robbery of an Indianapolis check cashing business. The 23-year-old apologized &LOOD and said he was driven to the B robbery after he lost his job and his family was threatened with Author Anne Rice has lived in eviction. RHODE ISLAND both the darkness and the light Kennedy to meet RI bishop on health care I PROVIDENCE – Rep. Patrick Kennedy of Rhode Island has he narrator of the poem “The Dark Night agreed to meet with the Roman Catholic Bishop of Providence after a public argument over of the Soul,” written by the Christian mys- the national health care over- haul. tic St. John of the Cross, speaks of being Bishop Thomas Tobin re- quested the meeting in a letter wakened in the night and led, as if by a to the Democratic lawmaker, and Kennedy agreed on Thurs- Tspiritual force, through the outer darkness and day.A date hasn't been sched- uled. into the waiting embrace of a lover. Kennedy last week criti- cized Catholic leaders who op- The metaphor for man’s alienation sure that, in some mysterious way, it pose universal health care and return to God, with its haunting, all serves the glory of God. plans unless the plans include erotic imagery, is also a perfect Among all her characters, Rice more restrictions on abor- metaphor for the spiritual journey of identifies most with the vam- tions. author Anne Rice. Since her first novel, “Interview Turn to PURPLE on Page 11B Tobin said Kennedy's com- with the Vampire” debuted in ments were "irresponsible" and 1976, Rice has sold nearly 100 demanded an apology. million books, most of them fea- Kennedy, who is Catholic, turing characters who are either says that he never meant to witches, spirits or, like her most fa- slight the church and that it has mous protagonist, the vampire Le- every right to promote its be- stat, one of the legions of the undead liefs. feeding on the blood of the living. But he says the issue facing Rice’s signature style – part florid Congress is, in his words, "ac- Southern Gothic, part historical fiction, cess to health care and nothing part fantasy – draws heavily from the else." Catholic symbolism and piety that col- ored her childhood in New Orleans. “My mother, Katherine, taught me a WASHINGTON, D.C. great love for the world of the invisible, the world of spiritual values, the world Swine flu concerns of truth,” Rice said, speaking on the face annual hajj phone from her home in California. I Some of the millions who Despite her religious upbringing, Rice travel to Saudi Arabia next was a committed atheist most of her lit- month for the annual hajj will erary life. Today she’s come back to the faith into which she was baptized, and be greeted with face masks, her work has taken a bold, new direc- hand sanitizer and fever tion. checks as health officials strive Rice recently spoke to the Daily Jour- to stem spread of swine flu nal about her return to the church, as during the world's largest pil- well as about her work and how she’s grimage. The Saudi Health Ministry, aided by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Preven- BY GALEN HOLLEY tion, is setting up an emergen- cy operations center to get DAILY JOURNAL real-time reports from area hospitals and clinics to track how many are sick and will need the free anti-viral medi- cation stockpiled for the dense gathering. The hajj, a pilgrimage re- quired of all able-bodied Mus- HEARERS OF THE WORD lims at least once in their life- time, attracts about 3 million people from 160 countries. GERMANY Life in an old chaos of the sun Lutherans elect first female leader ctober Saturdays at our house and buying diesel cemetery. sweaters. Are they playing tonight?” I BERLIN – Germany's Luther- are sepia-colored, cat-lazy, at the bait-and- “We could go to Square Books, or at “Yaz’um,” I tell her, but not each an Church has elected a smell like cut grass and Pine tackle shop, nod- least to Cracker Barrel in Batesville,” the other. woman to lead the nation's Sol, move to the delayed ding to the addicts wife says, but that’s a lot to ask, and I’m A cup of half-time coffee with a dash Protestants for the first time in O“throp, thropping” of Harleys gliding that amble in with not up to it. of old grandpa is good to start you to- its history. down 301 South, Delta-wise, toward the fistfuls of sweaty “I’m pleased to hear the ‘mew’ of yard ward your rest. Margot Kaessmann was over- casinos on a charity run. bills and craven kittens under the evergreens along the Third quarter I decide if I’ll get to whelmingly voted into the “Have you filled the bird feeder?” the faces. edge of the drive,” I tell her, “waiting to Mass next morning early enough to be church's top position on wife asks, over the sizzle of bacon. Like intestinal be eaten by jealous Toms, and I like see- asked to read. Most times not. I’ve Wednesday. “No, maw. I ain’t.” parasites they’re ing that concrete ditch between me and never been able to properly explain my- The 51-year-old bishop holds I open a can of ranch style beans with good for harvesting the rest of the world.” self before 11 a.m. a doctorate in theology and has my eggs and she tells me that’s the work the dried crust of Galen But that’s not Christian, and I don’t “I have a mind to recite ‘Sunday four grown children. She is one of the devil. deli bologna; good HOLLEY care. Morning’ by Wallace Stevens if I’m of only two women to serve as Rather be whipped than go shopping for a snaggle- By 6 p.m. my phone nearly vibrates drafted,” I tell her, then dissolve into bishop in Germany's Protestant but mama can’t carry 40-pound sacks of toothed quip about off the table, but that’s time to start get- lily-livered gibberish about green wings church. cat litter so I put on clean socks and tell the stuffed bear looming over the “Cat- ting deloused, hunkered down for the and oranges. She was ordained in 1985 myself it’ll all be over quick, like peeling fish Charlie.” SEC night game. She watches my mind fly out over the and has held many offices with- a bandage. Once and again of a Saturday the A good ration of smoked meat will do, wide water of our not-yet pond and tells in the church. Kaessmann is Impossible to tell who I’ve offended Presbyterians bury somebody, half-mile and a book of Barry Hannah’s short sto- me be content with watching the birds viewed as being politically ac- each week so checking my e-mail is like chain of pickups and domestic sedans ries for when I mute the commercials. feed. tive and media savvy. reaching my hand into the garbage dis- stretching to the intersection of 304. I “I like Uga, or Smoky,” the wife says, The Associated Press posal. disengage the PTO, tilt back my hat and sounding the barks of the mascots of Contact Daily Journal religion editor Galen Holley at Early afternoons I’m sipping coffee just sit till they make the hill of the Georgia and Tennessee. “They wear 678-1510 or [email protected]. NORTHEAST MISSISSIPPI DAILY JOURNAL AT YOUR LEISURE/ADVICE SATURDAY, OCTOBER 31, 2009 I PAGE 11B SUDOKU PUZZLE (SOLUTION ON THIS PAGE) NAMES IN THE NEWS Bullet hits Dobbs’ N.J. Dobbs says he had been receiving A. Knopf has not set a date for a digi- threatening phone calls for weeks. On tal version. home with wife nearby his radio show, he connected the gun- “We’re not releasing an e-book at I WANTAGE – Police in New Jersey are shot to his advocacy for a crackdown this time but may consider releasing trying to determine who fired a bullet on illegal immigration and to his oppo- one in the future,” Knopf spokesman that struck CNN nents’ rhetoric. Paul Bogaards said Thursday. commentator Lou The home is on a farm in Wantage, E-editions also have been withheld Dobbs’ home as about 50 miles northwest of New York for Sarah Palin’s “Going Rogue,” Ed- his wife stood City. ward Kennedy’s “True Compass” and nearby. It is small-game hunting season, but Stephen King’s “Under the Dome” as State police Sgt. no hunters were seen in the area. publishers worry that the growing e- Stephen Jones says market will take business from the Dobbs’ wife and more expensive hardcovers. driver were outside Agassi’s memoir publisher In Agassi’s book, No.