The practice of arranged marriages in Hindu culture may be old-fashioned, but instead of fizzling out with the advent of new technology, the use of cell phones and the Internet has instead made the practice easier.

The practice originated with the Hindu caste system. Parents historically upheld strict boundaries for matches until about the 1960s or 70s, according to Vikas Kamat, whose personal family Web site provides resources on Indian history and culture. The more rigid system of the past did not allow men or women to marry outside their region or native language group, and couples often met for only a few minutes with their families before they were married. Now Indian couples often meet their prospective mates in advance, and they may marry someone in another region or even country. More and more, parents take the preferences of the bride and groom into account.

A 2006 study by a University of Washington researcher found that young people in Bangalore increasingly use cell phones in order to get to know their selected partner. And while classifieds for available brides in local newspapers has been custom for the past few decades, several Web sites now allow parents to search for their children’s future mates online.

Bharatmatrimony.com hails itself as “India’s number one matrimony service provider,” having served over 1 million registered members in its eleven years of existence. Many but not all of the profiles are set up by parents, and most of those that are not include a section for the parents to comment on their son or daughter’s eligibility. The site allows users to search by the usual matchmaking options: location, occupation, age and hobbies, as well as more traditional Indian requirements for a good match: caste, native language and astrology signs.

The link between violent video games and violent behavior is a source of debate for politicians, researchers and journalists. While some claim there is a connection between the behaviors, video gaming site Kotaku highlights a video interview with Harvard professors Lawrence Kutner and Cheryl Olson, who claim otherwise.

Authors of Grand Theft Childhood: The Surprising Truth About Violent Video Games, Kutner and Olson state there is “absolutely no evidence” to support concerns about increased violence in these cases. They claim that really, boys who do not play videogames are at risk of showing aggression. They say video gaming may be a “marker of social confidence” among young boys and even a positive way for parents to interact with their children.

Their only qualification in the interview is that those who play exclusively violent games for at least 15 hours a week are at greater risk of getting in trouble at school — and even then, they say, few will. Lastly, they claim that there is no long-term research that says there are long-term effects on a child’s behavior.

Dr. Sung Joon Jang, a sociologist at Baylor University, disagrees. His study of similar cases about violence in movies and television shows that “playing violent video games on a regular basis is likely to increase . . . (tendencies) of aggression and violence among some individuals under certain circumstances.”

The issues are complex, and differences in gender and age can influence the effect. Some studies and researchers do show a small but statistically significant correlation between violent content and violent behavior. Another study finds that the literature has not proved that exposure to violent media causes violent behavior.

The Brazilian government has declared a dengue fever epidemic, with more than 45,000 people infected and at least 67 killed since January.

Officials disagree about the cause of the outbreak. While the Center for Disease Prevention and Control (CDC) argues that the fever affects this many people every year, the Pan American Health Organization shows that much fewer cases were reported for all of 2007 than what has already been reported three months into 2008. The Pan American Health Organization claims that global warming and poverty have increased the number of Aedes aegypti mosquito mosquitoes carrying the disease.

The discussion brings up another discussion: the ban on Dichloro-Diphenyl-Trichloroethane (DDT), which previously controlled the spread of insect-borne diseases. Dr. Donald Roberts of the University of the Health Sciences attributes the surges of these diseases largely to the 1972 ban by the Environmental Protection Agency. He notes that the risk of dengue fever in Brazil during the 1970s was almost completely eliminated and that less than 100,000 cases of malaria were diagnosed throughout the country after widespread DDT spraying. Now about 1 million people worldwide die of malaria annually.

Roberts presented testimony to the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works about this issue, as well as his concerns about global warming as a leading cause of insect-borne disease epidemics in October 2007. He also attributed the epidemics to uncontrolled poverty, noting that the epidemics occur almost exclusively in poorer countries.

The ban originally came into effect after environmentalists claimed to show adverse effects of DDT. However, a scientific review board of the EPA showed that DDT is not harmful to the environment or humans. It is also five to ten times cheaper than alternative insecticides, which would allow poor countries as well as wealthier ones to use it effectively.

About one in six West Virginians receive food stamps, according to the Charleston Daily Mail. This amount of government aid marks the state’s highest level of participation in at least 30 years, and the article attributes the increase to the fact that aid allotments don’t adjust for rising food and gas prices. The Daily Mail claims that as more people take advantage of Food Stamp Program benefits, the value of the aid decreases, so families are struggling to get by on the amount of aid offered.

However, as Tom Blumer, contributing editor to Newsbusters.org, points out, this isn’t true.* As the USDA Web site shows, the state determines maximum allotments on a family-to-family basis, using a low-cost model diet plan called the Thrifty Food Plan. The state calculates the amount of aid a family receives by subtracting 30 percent of the household’s net income from the TFP’s maximum allotment for their household size.

The TFP is based on dietary allowances from the National Academy of Sciences, and it is also modeled after the food choices of low-income households, so the provisions should be realistic for each family to cover their grocery bills. The state adjusts the amount for annual changes in food costs and for inflation, so maximum allotments in 2008 are 4.4 to 5 percent higher than previous years.

On the other side of the spectrum, an article in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer Reporter in 2005 shows that at the time, half of Seattle’s residents who qualified for Food Stamps chose not to use them. Many families are confused about who qualifies, but others simply do not want the government handout. These excuses are becoming null because the state replaced paper coupons with debit-like cards that offer more anonymity and sophistication in 1999. Regulators are also working to report rules in simpler terms and drop some of the restrictions that keep families from obtaining needed aid.

Correction: WoW originally misidentified Tom Blumer as CEO of News Busters. He is contributing editor.

Thanks to the internet, we no longer need to shower, get dressed, and leave the comfort of our homes to shop, bank, work, or even socialize, so we shouldn’t be surprised to discover online opportunities to worship God. These “virtual churches” claim they can fulfill your spiritual needs through online interaction and downloadable resources. This trend of doing church in front of your computer screen has grown substantially over the past several years, with sites offering links to lead you through the liturgy, or a video feed broadcasting the week’s sermon.

For instance, at the virtual church maintained by Shepherd’s Care Ministries, you and your mouse are called to worship by clicking on the opening prayer and reading through prayer requests, followed by “soul questions,” a sermon, and the closing prayer. The site does offer a disclaimer, albeit buried in a long paragraph of tiny type near the bottom of the page: “A church online is not as good as a church of believers.”

Other online churches offer chat rooms for weekly small group interaction, and members of Churchoffools.com can create 3-D characters that sit on pews and interact with other members each week. At Onlinechurch.com, a link supposedly guides people toward salvation in Jesus. When I followed the link, I wound up on several other pages, including one that listed even more Web sites. I never found the Gospel message.

If you’re not so much looking for the Gospel as you’re looking to cleanse your conscience, you can now also virtually bare your soul. According to CNN, confessional websites such as Ivescrewedup.com and mysecret.tv have become places where people can share their secret sins anonymously and in a non-confrontational way. The confessions can range from somewhat silly — “I don’t think my boyfriend is cute”— to criminal and relationally destructive— “I stole $15,000” and “I cheated on my wife.” The lure to these sites is substantial: When mysecret.tv recently was featured on AOL’s home page, more than 1.3 million people clicked through to the site that day.

When asked about the validity of online confessions, Father Ricardo Bailey of Holy Spirit of Atlanta told CNN, “As a priest, we ask people questions, we tell them to approach the person or persons they’ve wronged. [Online confession] is another way for people to avoid taking responsibility.”

As the Bible teaches us, we can only experience God’s fullness through genuine community and authentic accountability. For both of those experiences, real interaction with real people, not hiding behind a computer screen, is required.

Manicures, pedicures and facials are no longer privileges of women and “big girls,” says the New York Times. Cosmetic companies and retailers increasingly market pampering services and beauty products to 6- to 9-year-old girls.

While traditionally young girls had their moms paint their toenails, dabbled with their older sister’s make-up or tagged along to beauty salons, it’s now not unusual for moms to host birthday parties at nail and hair salons. Some salons market specifically to children, with the largest primping party outlet, Club Libby Lu, performing one million makeovers last year in its 90 mall-based stores last year.

Samantha Skey, senior vice president of strategic marketing for Alloy Media and Marketing, told the New York Times that our culture breeds young girls’ desire to grow up faster. Television shows such as “America’s Next Top Model” and social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace tell them they need to present themselves in a certain way to the public: “We live in a culture of insta-celebrity. Our little girls now grow up thinking they need to be ready for their close-up, lest the paparazzi arrive.”

Analysts label this behavior as part of a trend called KGOY, “Kids Getting Older Younger,” and link it to parent’s over-indulgence. This hyper-sexualizes young girls and turns them into consumers, according to Rosalind Wiseman, author of “Queen Bees & Wanna-Bes.”

Dr. Albert Mohler, president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, blogged his concerns about this issue recently. He told WoW that Christian parents have a responsibility to teach their children “the difference between pretty and truly beautiful.” Beauty goes deeper than the skin and is, instead, a matter of godly character. While physical beauty is sometimes celebrated in the Bible — as in the Song of Solomon — it is often presented as a snare: “We have got to learn that we are harming girls and young women by falling into the world’s patterns of praising aesthetic and cosmetic beauty alone.”

Some Christians are sloughing off the Bible’s “one wife” injunction and practicing polygamy. Thanks to the Internet, their search for superfluous spouses is getting easier.

Mark Henkel, founder of Truthbearer.org, estimates that 50,000 Christians have become polygamists since the movement (unconnected to the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints) began around 12 years ago.

Sites such as 2wives.com and Christianmarriage.com feature resources for Christian polygamists and Biblical arguments for the practice. (Abraham and David did it and God never said not to, they claim.) Some allow members to post pictures and profiles and for a monthly fee of around $30, couples can search for a new “sister-wife.” One ad reads, “Loving couple seeks to share life with like-minded woman. We don’t care what color your skin is; we want to get to know your heart.”

Since polygamy is illegal, none of the search sites post contact information or identification of site managers. Christianpolygamy,com helpfully explains how to dodge the illegality issue, suggesting that men legally marry then divorce wives in succession, never give the wives the Bills of Divorcement and still live with all of them. The site claims that this upholds the Christian requirements for marriage: a celebration and a ceremony. (Never mind the singular use of the word “wife” at the first marriage ceremony.)

Don Milton, a somehow-ordained minister in Arizona, established many of the sites, including Christianmarriage.com, Christianpolygamy.com and Isaiah4vs1.com, beginning in 1997. Milton decries the “monogamist reign of terror,” attempts to link monogamy and murder, and makes the tortuous case that if polygamy is wrong then Jesus is an illegitimate child.

Milton hopes someday to start a church that welcomes Christian polygamists. Milton has only one wife but says he should be free to take more since, he asserts, God ordained marriage solely to sate male’s sexual urges: “It is not a sin to take an additional wife to ‘satisfy’ ones own needs. Marriage was invented by God in order to satisfy the needs of man.”

“Immigration questions are questions dealing with God’s children,” Marlin Jensen, a Mormon Church leader, said in a speech at Westminster College. Jensen said the church has addressed Utah’s overwhelmingly Mormon Legislature, asking government officials to “slow down, step back and carefully study and assess the implications and human costs involved” in immigration reform.

During the current legislative session, lawmakers face several bills that propose to limit privileges and punish illegal immigrants Though a mantra of the Mormon church states, “The Church’s mission is to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ, not to elect politicians,” Jensen said the issues surrounding immigration reform are more than political but moral and ethical, as well. He also said he did not speak only for himself or the Quorum of Seventy, a group of Mormon leaders who serve as church emissaries. The First Presidency, the top three leaders of the Mormon Church, commissioned him.

Other churches are also voicing support for laws protecting illegal immigrants. A movement called Catholic Campaigning for Immigration Reform: Justice for Immigrants asks for laws that promise “family reunification, just and effective border control, a temporary worker program, restoration of due process protection and a path to legalization and citizenship for those already in the US.” The Southern Baptist General Convention has issued statements in support of reform and shown support of Hispanic evangelical groups such as the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Council.

On July 12, 2006, 150 faith leaders and representatives delivered the “Interfaith Statement in Support of Comprehensive Immigration Reform.” The statement quotes passages that encourage love for “the strangers among you” from the Bible, the Qu’ran and the Hindu Upanishads.

On the other side, however, groups such as Biblical Family Advocates, a Christian pro-family ministry, say the uncontrolled presence of immigrants promotes disobedience to God and lawlessness.

In his State of the Union address this week, President Bush repeated a request he made in May to double funding for global AIDS work. The President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), enacted in 2003, is now treating 1.4 million people in 15 focus countries around the world.

While no one argues over whether PEPFAR funding should be renewed, some say doubling the funds may not be sufficient. While Democrats wish to triple the funding to $50 billion, David Bryden, spokesman for the Global AIDS Alliance, said the figure should be closer to $59 billion.

Other issues also cause controversy among PEPFAR recipients and members of Congress such as requirements to allocate one-third of prevention money to abstinence programs. Other provisions block funds from groups that perform abortions and that aid prostitution. Outside of Democrats’ opposition to these provisions, others worry that the focus on AIDS could drain resources for other health care needs.

World Vision, a Christian relief and development organization, receives more than $150 million from PEPFAR grants now implemented in 14 countries. Director of corporate communications Dean R. Owen told WoW the organization focuses on caring for vulnerable children and especially those who have lost parents to AIDS.

Owen agreed that $30 billion does not meet global resource requirements that would ensure universal access to treatment, care and prevention by 2010: “Regrettably, the President’s request . . . is a doubling of the original bill in 2003, but not of current appropriations.”

He also explained that when PEPFAR was initiated, “prevention measures were narrowly focused,” and AIDS treatment did not focus on wide dissemination of drugs. The requirements helped distribute treatment effectively and support behavior change programs. This is necessary to accomplish World Vision’s goals of slowing the progression of the disease and also preventing its transmission, “something that will only be achieved in the foreseeable future through behavior change.”

After hearing Isaiah 40:31 at a classmate’s funeral in August, McKenzie High School students decided to use the Bible verse as their class motto. The verse even referenced the Oregon school’s mascot, eagles. After changing “They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles” to “They that believe shall mount up with wings like eagles,” the seniors believed the verse would be acceptable despite the religious reference.

But the school board said the verse’s origin, despite its modification, violated the first amendment’s establishment of religious clause. McKenzie school superintendent Sally Storm said the company that was going to publish the graduation announcements called the school district office when they recognized the motto’s scriptural origin. According to Associated Press, Storm said she had no choice but to contact the school district’s attorney: “My duty is to follow the law in this case — the U.S. Constitution — which doesn’t allow public schools to either interfere with the practice of religion or establish a religious practice.”

David Cortman, Alliance Defense Fund senior legal counsel, told WoW, “I think it’s sad that school administrators believe upholding the First Amendment requires eliminating any reference to faith.” The school board’s actions were not legal, and the ADF, a legal alliance that defends religious liberty, would readily take this case, if the students decided to take action against the school board, though they have not at this point.

Cortman said the censorship was an overreaction, just as other schools have overreacted about religious references in valedictorian speeches and mention of the golden rule in educational contexts: “Just because speech might have biblical references doesn’t mean it’s a constitutional crisis.”