Christians

Salam knew the risks. As a Christian in Iraq, he already faced persecution by extremist Muslim insurgents. Working for the U.S. military placed him in even more danger. But the contract his family's company had to supply water for the U.S. base at Ramadi was lucrative. Salam also respected the Americans for helping the Iraqi people and wanted to support the effort. On Feb. 1, 2006, Salam was leaving the base, beginning his seven-hour drive home after 17 days away.

Followed by a gaggle of children, Julius Salik walks a muddy dirt track in one of this city's squalid Christian slums, past open sewers and ramshackle homes with stick roofs. With a weary sigh, he motions to a row of neat brick apartment buildings just a few hundred yards away. "Muslims live there," says the 60-year-old social worker and former federal minister. "Good construction. Big houses. Big cars." Pakistan, he says, is a place of extremes.

A Middle East conference scheduled to be held next week at a prominent Pasadena church has sparked tensions between local Christians and Jews. But those involved say they hope to use the episode as a chance for increased dialogue and, perhaps, a deeper understanding of the sensitive issues surrounding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Several Los Angeles rabbis and others in the Jewish community have criticized a decision by All Saints Episcopal Church to allow its facilities to be used Feb.

Gunmen kidnapped a Chaldean Catholic archbishop and killed three of his guards Friday in the latest attack targeting Iraq's dwindling Christian minority in this northern city. The armed group intercepted Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho as he left the Church of the Holy Spirit after celebrating Mass, said Iraqi Brig. Gen. Khalid Abdul Sattar, a spokesman for Nineveh province security forces.

The Rev. Naim Ateek is a white-haired, American-trained Anglican priest who supports nonviolent solutions to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and often speaks of his dream of a world in which Israeli and Palestinian states exist peacefully, side by side. Ateek is also the founder of Sabeel, a Palestinian liberation theology movement based in Jerusalem, and a man whose U.S. appearances in recent years have sparked controversy among some Jewish groups.

World Muslim leaders on Friday condemned extremism and terrorism as incompatible with Islam and proposed a high-level international meeting to promote a "dialogue of civilizations" with Christians. Leaders of the 57-nation Organization of the Islamic Conference, which represents 1.5 billion Muslims across the Middle East, Africa and Asia, made the "Dakar Declaration" after a two-day summit in Senegal.

Prime Minister Nouri Maliki asked Pope Benedict XVI in a meeting Friday in Italy to encourage Iraqi Christians who have fled their country to return, citing the improved security situation. He also invited the pontiff to visit Iraq. "I . . . appealed to his holiness to encourage Christians who left the country to go back and be part of the social structure of Iraq again," Maliki told reporters after his session with the pope at the pontiff's summer residence in Castel Gandolfo.

In a white-steepled church along a stretch in picturesque canyon country, the preacher laid out the basic blueprint of a godly marriage: Husbands lead, wives submit. Speaking recently before hundreds of worshipers at Placerita Baptist Church in Newhall, guest preacher Chris Mueller affirmed the view that loving male headship and gracious wifely submission are God's plan for spouses.

Barack Obama isn't in the White House yet, but conservative evangelical Christians are worried that he will threaten their freedom to live according to the Bible and profess it as the literal word of God. If evangelicals don't act now, prayer in schools and on the airwaves would give way to pornography and same-sex marriage, some predict.

Wearing flowing robes and thorny crowns, about 400 churchgoers honored a promise to their pastor that they'd dress like Jesus to remind people of Christmas' roots. Members of Praise Chapel Christian Fellowship began dressing that way last week at jobs, shopping malls and restaurants. The demonstration wrapped up Wednesday. "I know it's a crazy idea," said the Rev. Kelly Lohrke, whose 600 members attend services in Kansas City, Kan., and nearby Lee's Summit, Mo. "I know it's a radical idea.