Word: statuses
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...keep HELEN MIRREN off the world stage. The Oscar-nominated actress, brave enough to go stark naked in Calendar Girls, was all set to visit Sudan's Darfur region this week to use her celebrity status to call attention to the genocide there. A surge in violence prompted Oxfam, the sponsor, to cancel the trip, but Mirren refused to make her exit. After a minor script adjustment, she is now headed to northern Uganda, another African hot spot, where 18 years of war have driven more than 1.6 million people from their homes, including some 20,000 children abducted...
Rather, they see the destination as having been a theological necessity. Bethlehem had been King David's hometown. And in a confused 1st century theological landscape in which many Jews expected a mighty new leader but disagreed on his nature, David's biblical status as God's "anointed one" (or "Messiah") provided a potent precedent of divinely sanctioned kingship. Binding Jesus to him by family (through Joseph) and birthplace consolidated that definition, which then matured into Christianity's far grander messiahship. Says White: "No Bethlehem, no David. No David, no messianic prototype. Matthew and Luke both understood that...
Brown was aware of the star's theological importance to Matthew. For some Jews it probably brought to mind a verse from the Old Testament book Numbers alluding to David's messianic status--"A star shall come out of Jacob and a [king] shall rise out of Israel." By making the star the object of the non-Jewish Magi's curiosity, Matthew showed that if he lacked Luke's detailed pagan background, he at least had some knowledge that stellar displays had meaning to non-Jews as well. In fact, stars were associated with the founding of Rome...
...star-studded Nativity scene at London wax museum MADAME TUSSAUDS elevated soccer god David Beckham to biblical status last week, exhibiting wax figures of him and his wife Victoria, a.k.a. Posh Spice, as Joseph and Mary. As pop singer Kylie Minogue hovers angelically, Hugh Grant and Samuel L. Jackson appear as shepherds while Tony Blair, George W. Bush and Prince Philip portray wise men in the display, which will stay up until January. The Vatican has called the scene blasphemous. And with Posh as the Virgin, the church may have a point...
...year the state got $30 billion in military contracts, much of it in high-tech areas in which the state has a long-established lead, such as guided missiles, navigation and communications equipment, and unmanned aircraft. Wall Street has raised California's credit rating one notch above junk-bond status, though it is still lower than all the other 49 states...