A new book by a New York Daily News journalist is touting premarital chastity as more “vibrant” than promiscuity.

Dawn Eden, author of “The Thrill of the Chaste: Finding Fulfillment While Keeping Your Clothes On” ($13.99, W Publishing Group), sees her book as a pep talk for “marriage-minded single women who'd had enough of the 'Sex and the City' lifestyle.”

Publisher's Weekly likes it: “In a sea of evangelical books on chastity that read like they were written for college students, Eden's will stand out as a book for grown-ups and should be popular with more mature Christian women.”

GOD & GRIDIRON

With the Chargers heading into the playoffs, let's pause for a moment of prayer. You can bet other teams also will be asking for some heavenly help.

K.C. ALFRED / Union-Tribune

But chaplains who minister to NFL teams (including longtime Chargers chaplain Shawn Mitchell) say God doesn't care who wins. “I've tried to correct some guys because, to me, it brings personal faith down to a good-luck-charm level,” the New York Giants' chaplain, George McGovern, told Religion News Service.

Instead, says Baltimore Ravens kicker Matt Stover, the locker-room ministry helps nurture an environment “where the player can gain a sense of purpose outside himself.

Some players head for the pulpit when their game days are done. One local example: former Chargers defensive back Miles McPherson, founder of the Rock Church in San Diego.

SOUL MUSIC

Jerry Leggett is a singer and songwriter, an ordained United Church of Christ minister and a practicing

Buddhist. But mostly these days he's a peace activist.

He'll spend this year on the road with his modest trailer, which he calls “the peace bubble,” giving noontime concerts around the country to “sing out for peace.” The United Church of Christ is helping sponsor the tour; in return, many of his concerts also will pay tribute to the denomination's 50th anniversary.

A kickoff is scheduled for noon Monday at the Carlsbad sea wall. You can follow Leggett's pilgrimage at peacebubble.org.

PEWS NEWS

This year's honorees for the annual tribute dinner held by the Ecumenical Council of San Diego County: Sister

Justine Church (of the Interfaith Committee for Worker Justice), Monsignor Dennis Mikulanis (ecumenical and interreligious affairs officer for the Roman Catholic Diocese of San Diego), Lt. Cols. Doug and Diane O'Brien (local Salvation Army leaders) and the Rev. Kenneth Treat (retired ecumenical officer for the Episcopal Diocese of San Diego).

The dinner-fundraiser is Jan. 17, starting with a silent auction at 5:30 p.m., at the Joan Kroc Institute for Peace and Justice. Tickets are $125; call the Ecumenical Council at (619) 238-0649.

  Compiled with input from news services, Web sites, books, magazines and other sources. Write us at re@uniontrib.com or Religion & Ethics, The San Diego Union-Tribune, P.O. Box 120191, San Diego, CA 92112.