the pain it can cause when spread on the internet. and the christmas story, told in a popular church service called the festival of lessons in carols. >> you let the music, the carols, the text, the prayer. >> plus hanukkah. the blessings, the food and the tradition that go with the manora.

major funding for religion and ethics news weekly is provided by the lily endowment. a private foundation dedicated to its founders and interest in religion, community development and education. additional funding by mutual of america, designing customized, individual and group retirent products. that's why we're your retirement company. and the corporation for public broadcasting. welcome, thank you for joining us. as president barack obama and congressional leaders try to agree on an agenda for the lame duck session of congress, religious leaders continue to push for action on several pieces of legislation. one important bill for many faith-based groups, the healthy hunger free kids act was passed by the house of representatives on thursda among other things the measure would expand the number of

children covered in school lunch programs. president obama has made ratification of the nuclear treaty with russia one of his top priorities. that has the president of many religious organizations, including the catholic bishop and some evangelicals. they are sponsoring tv ads calling for immediate ratification of the treaty on moral grounds. a brotd faith coalition is urging congress to take up the dream act, to help undocumented immigrant children by creating an pathway to citizenship for those who complete two years of college or military service. there's much religious agreement as congress debates whether to overturn the 17-year-old don't ask, don't tell policy, which bans gays from serving openly in the military. 70% of service members thought there would be little or no negative effect from lifting the

ban. religious groups are actively lobbying on both sides. in oregon religious leaders are expressing solidarity with the muslim community after a suspected case of arson at a local islamic center. the fire occurred after a young somali american man was arrested for plotting to set off a bomb at a christmas tree lighting ceremony in portland. local interface clergy joined hundreds of residents in support of the censure. muslim groups have requested more protection. as the state department dealt with the wikileaks release, there was another u.s. diplomatic relationship involving the vatican. an italian newspaper obtained documenting showing after the death of pope john paul ii, american diplomats in rome had drawn out their list of 16 potential successors. according to a telegram sent to

washington, the diplomats were shocked and speechless when the cardinal was elected. he wasn't on their list. the wikileaks release showed the internet has become a powerful tool for spreading information that people had hoped to keep secret. it's also a powerful means for spreading false gossip. religious traditions condemn gossip as sinful, but online gossip is still a problem, even at faith-based school. betty rollins reports. >> reporter: it's called cyber abuse, and it looks like this. this is the sort of message that erin and her sorority sisters found herself confronted with her in junior year of college. she'now a senior at a small college in new york with a catholic heritage. >> one day i came from house. my house matie housemates were around a computer. they heard of and found this

website. i went over and checked it out, and just saw terrible, terrible things written. initially it affect ad lot of girls i know. i think they were just devastated, embarrassed, upset. this is a very small school. one person hears something and it spreads like wildfire, even if it holds no truth. >> the website that was spreading the malicious gossip was called juicy campus. incredibly the students had no way to stop it since the messages were all anonymously written and the website was under no legal obligation to remove it. >> some of them were definitely probably written by men who maybe left off on the wrong foot with a girl. maybe somethg happened, and, you know, he didn't think of her in the highest regards. and for girls jealousy. they know the site is anonymous,

so they're so willing to jump on their computer and write comments about people because they know they'll never be caught. >> eric dyer was class president last year. a fellow student's e-mail alerted him to the brob. >> two of my roommates have suffered eating disorders and have been getting help from school. because of this site they've been up with panic attacks most nights. >> the site became like a campus virus affecting everyone. there was a particular fear that potential employers would see the kmebts. given there was no legal way to stop postings, the question is how do you sop them? student leaders and administrators first considered banning the site, then decided to launch a campaign. we found a program princeton came up with. a way for students to voice their opinions in a constructive, respectful and a way that isn't anonymous so you can find out who is saying what about each other. >> and what were the opinions? >> julie, you're the best

roommate ever. thanks for helping me on my homework. you're a great person and a really great friend. >> in addition, they flooded juicy campus with messages of love. so all of this together seems to have woshed. >> it did. we brought the idea of social change. >> although jooussy campus ran out of money and eventually shut down, other sites are alive and well. and the fargts are not only on campuses. michael, who lives in northern california, is in the business of trying to protect adults and companies from online attacks. >> our customers tell us their lives have been ruined. their livelihoods have been ruined. the kids' mental health has been ruined. your education, your training, they're all tied up with your name, and your livelihood is tied up with what people see about you when they look up your

name online. our job, where there's a problem and we want to remediate the problem by repairing the result is to make sure the most recent truthful and good stuff shows up on the top of google and the nasty attacks descend so they're harder and harder to find. >> reporter: this is manhattan high school for girls on east 70th street in new york city. they consider the act of gossip to be a sin, a huge sin. the orthodox jewish girls who attend the school are made aware every day of thes gossip. speaking ill of someone or listening to such speech. constructive criticism can be allowed, but harsh criticism is forbidden. >> they deserve to be protected. the dignity should be protected. if they do something wrong, they

should not suffer embarrassment. they should not be degrated by other people. but what if someone seems to deserve criticism. >> once we establish that the person did something wrong we're still obligated to try to minimize the wrong. maybe the person didn't understand, the person doesn't know. >> what about gossip that is intimate but not critical? >> there is prohibition of spilling the beans. if something was told to you in privacy, you have to right to tell anyone. >> i'm going to tell you what she said about you. >> the students regularly do skits. >> we are not fripds anymore. >> but avoiding nasty comments isn't always easy. >> i think i've been in a few

situations where i had a really juicy story to tell people. it really wasn't something i got to finish. learning to love every night. it helped me bring an awareness i stopped to think about. maybe i really shouldn't say this. every single day you're talking with your friends. there's always new conversations and new pieces of gossip to talk about. it gets easier because you have to first learn, you have to want to do it, and then you have to push yourself and control yoursel yourself. >> if i'm not seeing bad things about people, then it's good. >> there are times when jewish law allows, even condones it. when giving factual information in a court of law, for example, or to protect a person from imminent harm. and outside jewish law, defenders of gossip say often it's just a way that friends bond. the girls of manhattan high

school are largely unaffected by the biggest conveyer of gossip. mainly the internet. this prohibits use of the internet. but many people, especially young people virtually live on the internet where it's open season. there's no law to protect them. >> the law is set up in such a way that the website where you publish the content is absolutely immune from liability. so absolutely defame someone. the website where you publish the content never has to take it down. many others are dealing with onlines go sit sips. they will con to be a problem for some and a temptation for others. i'm betty rollins in new york.

>> christians are celebrating the time of spiritual preparation leading up to christmas. in the holy land, the season got under way with fanfare at the annual celebration by the chunch church of nativity in bethlehem. palestinian authorities hope the festivities will attract more tourists to the west bank town. at the vatican, pope benedict 16th provided over the annual service in st. peters basilica. many churches here in the u.s. hold a special services called the lessons of carol. i took a popular look at this popular pre-christmas tradition. ♪ with scripture and song, the festival of lessons and carols retells the christmas story, and for many it's a moving spiritual experience.

lessons in carols is not a concert. it's not where you're going to applaud at everything. you're going to allow yourself to meditate at a much deeper place. the service intersperses prayers, carols and bible readings, traditionally nine passages called lessons. >> then the lord god say to the woman, what is this you have done? the woman says this doesn't trick me. >> the readings start at the beginning with with the book of j genesis and the book of adam and eve sitting in the garden and damning their relationship with god. the forthcoming of a savior. >> the virgin shall be with child and bear a son and shall name him emanuel. >> and then to the gospel, which

described the coming of jesus. >> of his kingdom, there shall be no end. >> from a theological standpoint, and actually from a visual standpoint, it is getting that wide angle lens and moving back and seeing the whole story. seeing the panorama of god's plan for salvation for human kind, and why that was even necessary. >> she wrote a book called preaching to the choir. the songs after each reading help amplify the message. >> a sense the hymns and carols, most of them are based on biblical sources. the music really tells you how to feel about the text. >> the festival has its roots in ancient christian vigils, but the service in the current format was first held in 1928 at king's college.

it was adapted by a former army chaplain, the dean of the college. milner white was preparing a christmas eve service at the end of world war i. about half of king's undergraduates had gone off to w war, and one-third of them never came back. he wanted to do something something. you have a congregation made up largely of widows, of girlfriends that had been called fiances. children. there to somehow deal with this horror they've just been through. i think he wanted to deliver some level of comfort that all this pain and suffering and death had some meaning. >> bill edwards is author of a book called the festival of nine lessons and carol ls. he says the service mil ner

white put together caught on. >> throughout the early 1920s, more and more people would attend the service. and by 1928 it was well known enough that the bbc, which it was then in its infancy. radio 1928, picked it up to broadcast throughout the british isles, then two years later throughout the world. >> minnesota public radio began broadcasting the service in 1979. the service is magnificent 16th century chapel is not televised. edwards describes himself as a last congregationalist but says attending the service in person is like being on a religious pilgrimage. >> my favorite is everybody's favorite. i can't talk about it without getting choked up because it's so emotional.

that's hearing the first few bars just magic. >> the spirit of the lord shall rest upon him. >> local churches began copying the king's service and then adapting it. people love the format and pastors appreciate itted it because nay didn't have to come up with a sermon. protestants and catholics alike participate in the services. while many stick with the favorite. others incorporate more contemporary songs or congresses from a variety of cultures.

>> it's wonderful that a concept that is almost 11 years old has the power and has been helped by technology, i.e., worldwide radio, to say something to ministers, priests, whatever you will, hey, i can do something with this that's meaningful in my church. >> as we await the great festival of christmas, let us prepare ourselves so that we may be shown its true meaning. >> some churches don't actually sing carols until right before christmas. so they developed advent lessons for early december using advent hands instead of carols. at new york's cathedral church, they turned the entire service into a processional with the choir moving to each corner of

the church. advent lessons are more reflective while the christian versions take on a more joyous mood. he says the music reflects that. >> the amazing thing about christmas is it allows us to celebrate a really profound joy. the joy of being refound by god, of opening our hearts to that love in a new way. and of receiving this light that will transform us and reconcile us. not only with good, but with each other. >> every christmas eve bill edwards has friends over to listen to the college service live on the the radio. he down loads so they can all follow along. >> many of our friends are jew wish. a bunch of my friends don't believe in anything and they

enjoy just as much. everybody pries along with the prayers, which surprised me, but they do. it's about finding some sort of spiritual component in life that people are missing. >> a reading from the gospel of luke. >> they believe that's the pour of the festival of carols. >> the gift is it takes time. you let the music, the carols, the texts, the prayers wash over you. and the light will bre break through. some text, some image, some musical phrase will change you. and that will be the gift. >> i'm kim lawton reporting.

>> jews are celebrating hae ini hanukkah, the festival of lights. the eight-day hanukkah festival marks the time when jews recaptured the temple in jerusalem in the second century b.c. according to tradition, the jews lit lamp fls the temple with only a one day supply of oil, but the lamps burned for eight days. with visited the family in rockville, maryland, as they gathered with family and friends to celebrate. zblf most menorahs are list outside. because of persecution throughout jewish history,

people lit indoors and placed their menorahs on table. every night we add an additional candle. we begin with one. the last night we light eight candles. with light them with the center candle or the central candle, it often has a special place. we have a general blessing on the first night. thank you god for bringing us to this day. then we add two blessings about the miracle. and it's a good time to think about the the miracles in our own lives. but we don't use the hanukkah lights for anything else. for example, we wouldn't use them to read by or to do any kind of mundane activity. they're a sacred sort of light while they're burning.

we celebrate a small jug of oil that burned miraculous for for eight days, we celebrate all kinds of oils. the other thing is doughnuts. i think the holiday season is a time of a lot of generosity and a lot of compassion and good will. a lot a lot of community teaching in high-tech firms and law firms and other firms. today we looked at sources on light and talked about the magical properties of light as a way to talk about responsibility. how do we have a responsibility when we can see the vulnerable? we can see the oppressed. we can't walk away from them. >> hanukkah is a time when we take responsibility for the world. for spreading kindness to the world. i think many jews. even highly assimilated jews

feel a lack of belonging in the mainstream culture. hanukkah has always been a good time for them to come together in a social setting to feel a sense of belonging with each other. some students in new york say they got their own hanukkah miracle this year. they made a new world record. a new event they call dradle palooza. the previous world record of 541 was set in 2005 in cherry hill, new jersey. this was a fund-raiser for undergraduate scholarships. >> finally, a few more calendar notes. muslims celebrate the s lauisla new year. the holiday falls on the first monday of the month. on december 6th christians

celebrate the feast day of st. nicholas, who many consider the inspiration for santa claus. and december 8th buddhists celebrate body day when he obtained enlightenment and reached the stage of nirvana. he did so sitting under a bodi tree, according to tradition. that's our program for now. i'm kim lawton. there's much more on our website, including more about the festival of lessons and carols. you can comment on the stories and share them. audio and video podcasts are available. follow us on twitter or facebook where i have a fan page, now, too. you can watch us on smart phones and iphones. to find out more, join us at pbs.org. more music from the northwest boy choir. ♪

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