Fort Worth Star Tribune 4/28/00 Teresa Watanabe (LA Times) "……. The census has caused anxiety -- even anger in some quarters -- with its questions about everything from income to plumbing. But there is one major aspect of American life it fails to cover: religion. Congress barred the Census Bureau in 1976 from compelling people to reveal their religious affiliations. As a result, America's religious landscape remains surprisingly ill-defined. Some of the most fundamental presumptions are based on educated guesswork, suspect science or leaps of faith...."

Town Hall 4/20/00 "……..Republican Govs. Christine Todd Whitman and Tom Ridge are warning that the GOP ought to abandon its opposition to abortion or risk annihilation. Their broadsides, coming not long after John McCain's blasts at Pat Robertson and Rev. Jerry Falwell, raise the perennial question: Do religious conservatives have a place in contemporary politics. And if not, why not? Whitman and Ridge claim that strict pro-life arguments are politically dangerous and palpably extreme -- as opposed to, say, Whitman's support for partial-birth abortion. They produce no evidence for their charge because there is none. Pro-lifers oppose abortion because they consider it the destruction of a human life. It is hardly unreasonable for people to oppose murder. Nevertheless, the "extremist" label enjoys enormous prestige in Democratic and Republican circles because organized religion does something many baby boomers find unbecoming. It reminds them that moral standards aren't merely advisory or malleable, but generally rigorous, firm and hard to obey. This is not true merely of floppy-Bible Baptism, but also of Catholicism, Judaism and Islam. ….."

Associated Press 4/25/00 "……Ohio's motto, ``With God, all things are possible,'' violates the U.S. Constitution as a government endorsement of religion, the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled today. A panel of the federal court sided with the American Civil Liberties Union, which contended that the words had no secular purpose and appeared to be a government endorsement of the Christian religion. Ohio took the motto in 1959 from the Bible, specifically Matthew 19:26, which quotes Jesus Christ. ``I read it to mean it's thrown out completely,'' said Mark Cohn, a lawyer for the ACLU. ``It cannot be used by the state as its motto.'' The Ohio attorney general was reviewing the decision and had no immediate response to it, spokeswoman Stephanie Beougher said from Columbus. ……The state could appeal the court's 2-1 ruling to the full, 13-judge appellate court or ask the Supreme Court to review it. ……"

WorldNetDaily 5/13/00 Dr Jerry Falwell "…..For years, Christian organizations have openly wondered how long it would be before a homosexual or homosexual-rights group attempted to gain entrance into their organizations. As the Boy Scouts battle for their right to define who may -- and may not -- serve as leaders in their association, this scenario has given religious conservatives cause to believe we could face a similar battle very soon. ...... That scenario may have actually already arrived in Medford, Mass., the site of a contentious debate over a Christian group's right to define the lifestyle of their leaders. Tufts student Julie Catalano, an openly-"bisexual" member of the Tufts Christian Fellowship, recently sought a leadership position in that group. However, fellowship leaders turned her down because her belief that homosexual acts are not biblically wrong countered their core belief. ……….. As a result, leaders of a Tufts student government panel has now ruled that the fellowship's policy violates the school's anti-discrimination policy. The Christian group has subsequently been stripped of its name and about $6,000 in annual funding from student fees. In addition, they are forbidden from meeting in campus classrooms. …… It appears that biblical morality is now a costly conviction. ……. The TCF, with about 65 members, has not met since the Tufts Community Union Judiciary's April 13 decision. …… "This is political correctness gone awry," Thor Halvorssen of the Philadelphia-based Freedom for Individual Rights in Education, told the Associated Press. "They're asking a fundamentalist Christian group to stop being fundamentalist Christians." Ms. Catalano, 20, said TCF leaders told her that homosexuality was a product of man's "brokenness" and she could change with prayer. She said she prayed for two years before deciding she could not change. Additionally, she claims she explored different biblical interpretations and eventually decided homosexuality was not a sin. I wonder if she ever read Romans, chapter 1. I don't say this to be smug, but the Bible unequivocally teaches us -- in many passages -- to avoid sexual sin. ......"

LewRockwell.com 5/29/00 Bill Barnwell "……For years conservatives and devout religious individuals have been lectured and scorned by the media and cultural elite for their supposed intolerance and hatred. No group has been more vicious in the war against those who adhere to traditional values than the collective gay rights movement. According to this crowd, conservative Christians, Orthodox Jews, Muslims, and other mean and nasty groups are said to be the epitome of hatred and ignorance, because they refuse to renounce their religious beliefs regarding homosexuality. …….. The battle cry of these liberal groups is Celebrate Diversity! Anyone who has spent one week in a public university or politically correct corporation has had this phrase shoved down his throat a million times. What is quite interesting is that the only celebration is of liberal ideas and orthodoxy. Those heretics who do not accept our progressive societys beliefs on feminism, forced integration, abortion, and homosexuality are to be eternally driven out of the liberal Eden and subject to a lifetime of ridicule and disdain for their sins. ….."

EWTN 5/30/00 "…… A campaign led by a pro-abortion group to oust the Vatican from the United Nations is losing support with a major sponsor quietly removing itself from the list of endorsers, the Catholic Family & Human Rights Institute (C-FAM) said on Friday. C-FAM said the Sierra Club, one of the largest environmental groups in the US, has disappeared from the list of groups endorsing the "See Change" campaign. The campaign to remove the Vatican's permanent observer status at the UN was organized by the pro-abortion Catholics for a Free Choice (CFFC), which recently criticized by the US bishops' conference as being a front for anti-Catholic organizations. C-FAM has organized a counter-campaign supporting the Vatican, with more than 2,000 groups signing on to their effort, as opposed to the approximately 400 supporting CFFC. ……"

Catholic Telecommunications 5/30/00 "……British government plans to lift the ban on men kissing in public have been opposed by a Catholic women's group. The proposal is part of the package of sex law reforms which was announced earlier this week. While the National Board of Catholic Women (NBCW) welcomed the "long overdue" changes which would protect men from rape, it remains opposed to proposals which would allow men to kiss in public -- currently considered an act of indecency. NBCW President, Freda Lambert, told The Universe newspaper: "We do not oppose homosexuality, but men kissing in public is a homosexual practice and we do oppose it. It would make us feel uncomfortable." ….."

Chicago Sun-Times 5/27/00 Thomas Roeser "…..A new book could well be a prelude to a new campaign by abortion proponents that ties false reasoning and misapplications of early church fathers Augustine and Aquinas to a rationale for abortion a full seven months after conception. The book by Daniel A. Dombrowski and Robert Deltete is published by University of Illinois Press and entitled A Brief, Liberal Catholic Defense of Abortion. Brief it is (158 pages), liberal it undeniably is, but Catholic it certainly is not. Its argument utilizes quaint, medieval philosophy of nature, the only knowledge known to Augustine and Aquinas at the time, to attempt to justify what certainly the two saints would not--abortion at seven months following conception. It argues that up to that point the unborn child is not a human, but just as "a pile of wires and switches is not an electrical circuit," a "collection of nerve cells is not a functioning brain." …..

CBN News 5/31/00 Kelly McElveen "…… Witches and pagans, hippies and New Agers, radical feminism and alternative spirituality -- these are not the eclectic streets of San Francisco. This is Lexington Avenue in Asheville, N.C., and here you're just as likely to find a Wiccan keeping shop as a Baptist going to church. Asheville is a small city of about 68,000 nestled in the mountains of western North Carolina. It's located in the heart of the Bible belt -- the stretch of southern states considered to be the bastion of conservative Christian values. But this small city has earned a reputation of being anything but conservative. …….A recent issue of Rolling Stone magazine describes Asheville this way: "Asheville had recently become America's new freak capital. The place overflowed with hippies, neo-hippies, punks, witches, pagans, the homeless and lost, the homeless and found, fairies, dykes, braggarts, dreadlocked bliss ninnies, thieves, crystal worshippers, free-leonard peltiers, free-mumias, potheads, anarchists, performance artists, and so on." ……."

Denver Rocky Mountain News 5/31/00 Marlys Duran "…..Ten-year-old Patrick O'Loughlin stepped to the microphone Tuesday and pleaded for relief from the weekly abortion protests in front of his house. "I'm tired of hearing how my loving father is going to hell," said Patrick. He is the son of Dr. Edward O'Loughlin, who performs abortions two days a week at a Denver clinic. Patrick was one of nearly a dozen Huntington Estates residents who urged the Arapahoe County commissioners to limit how and when demonstrators could picket in residential neighborhoods. The five-member board gave unanimous preliminary approval to the ordinance and scheduled a public hearing at 9 a.m. June 27. ……"

EWTN News Brief 5/26/00 "……British government plans to lift the ban on men kissing in public have been opposed by a Catholic women's group. The proposal is part of the package of sex law reforms which was announced earlier this week. While the National Board of Catholic Women (NBCW) welcomed the "long overdue" changes which would protect men from rape, it remains opposed to proposals which would allow men to kiss in public -- currently considered an act of indecency. ……NBCW President, Freda Lambert, told The Universe newspaper: "We do not oppose homosexuality, but men kissing in public is a homosexual practice and we do oppose it. It would make us feel uncomfortable." ….."

AP Breaking via MyRightStart.com 5/29/00 Frances D’Emilio "…..Rome's mayor said Monday he was yanking the city's sponsorship of July's Gay Pride events, which the Vatican doesn't want taking place during the Holy Year called by Pope John Paul II. The decision follows an appeal by a top Italian cardinal to move the event elsewhere. Premier Giuliano Amato has called the scheduling of Gay Pride week during Holy Year "inopportune" and added that "unfortunately" Italy's constitution doesn't allow the gathering to be banned. Leftist Mayor Francesco Rutelli, citing events like a gay fashion show to be held near a church, said the city was withdrawing official backing of the event although it would still "be the guarantor of the gays' freedom to demonstrate." Right-wing politicians, including the president of Lazio region, which encompasses Rome, have demanded the events, which range from sports activities to cultural appointments, be scrapped. ….."

Family News in Focus 5/26/00 Stuart Shepard "……Bring your Bible to school and get suspended. That's what happened to two girls in Texas. Fifteen-year-old Angela Harbison was showing a teacher the math lesson she planned to work on in Saturday school, then showed her a New Testament, explaining she also hoped to do some reading. "She grabbed it out of my hand and she goes, 'These are not allowed on school campus or in this school. I don't know what you were thinking,'" Harbison recalled. Harbison's sister Amber, 13, was right behind her. Both Angela and Amber were also carrying book covers with the Ten Commandments printed on them. …"

Baptist Press 5/30/00 Todd Starnes "…..Homosexual activists angered by the Southern Baptist Convention's belief that the Bible teaches homosexuality is a sin are planning to protest the SBC's annual meeting scheduled for June 13-14 at the Orange County Convention Center. Soulforce, a national network of homosexual activists, has announced its intention to converge a national protest against the SBC during the Orlando convention. The group's Internet website encourages homosexuals to make preparations to be arrested during a planned civil disobedience on June 14. …….. However, as of May 26, the Orange County Sheriff's Department had not received a demonstration or parade permit from the homosexual group. …..Southern Baptists belief that homosexuality is a sin is based on a number of passages in the Bible, including Romans 1:18-30, I Cor. 6: 9-10; and Leviticus 20:13-16. ….."

BBC 5/30/00 "…….Gay rights leaders in Italy have criticised a decision by the Mayor of Rome, Francesco Rutelli, to cancel the city council's support of a World Gay Pride festival that was due to take place in July. Mr Rutelli was responding to moves by the Vatican and the Italian Prime Minister, Giuliano Amato, to have the event staged elsewhere. Mr Amato told parliament last week that Gay Pride celebrations in Rome were "inappropriate" during the Holy Year called by Pope John Paul II to celebrate 2000 years since the birth of Jesus Christ. ...... The Mario Mieli gay cultural group, one of the organisers, said the events would go ahead with or without authorisation. …….. One Italian gay rights leader, Franco Grillini, said Italy had to choose whether to be a free and democratic country or a Vatican serfdom. ……. Some opponents say they fear the Gay Pride celebrations will turn into a demonstration against the Pope, who has defended the Vatican's condemnation of homosexual acts. ......:

The Washington Times 5/24/00 Julia Duin "…… A Roanoke Episcopal priest whose parish has been charged with being too conservative has been formally ejected from the Episcopal Diocese of Southwest Virginia, he was informed yesterday. In a letter faxed to the Rev. Quigg Lawrence, 40, pastor of the Church of the Holy Spirit, diocesan Bishop Neff Powell informed the priest he had been "inhibited" as of May 19 from performing priestly functions such as weddings, funerals, confirmations, confessions and baptisms. After six months, the bishop said, Mr. Lawrence would be "deposed," or defrocked. "I expected it," Mr. Lawrence said yesterday. Comparing himself to the newly retired Bishop John Shelby Spong of the Episcopal Diocese of Newark, N.J., he added, "I'm disgusted. "I'm particularly perplexed they'd allow a man who disavows the entire [Nicene] Creed to remain a bishop in good standing in the church and they kick me out and I believe in every part of the Creed." ……"

Enter Stage Right - A Journal of Modern Conservatism 5/22/00 Charles Morse "…..Dr. Harry F. Ward, known as the "Red Dean" of the Union Theological Seminary, was a leader in the founding of the Federal Council of Churches, the forerunner to the NCC. In a career spanning 40 years, Ward influenced hundreds of Protestant ministers and leaders to philosophical, if not outright Communism. There were few Communist fronts in which Ward was not involved. Ward stated on a radio broadcast, May 21, 1946, that "The Soviet Union is progressing and growing up economically and politically...while Capitalist society is starving and going down".

Enter Stage Right - A Journal of Modern Conservatism 5/22/00 Charles Morse "…..HCUA staff director Richard Arens testified on Feb. 25, 1960 concerning the NCC as follows: Thus far, of the National Council of Churches of Christ in America, we have found over 100 persons in leadership capacity with either Communist-front records or records of service to Communist causes. The aggregate affiliations of the leadership, instead of being in the hundreds as first indicated, is now, according to the latest count, into the thousands, and we have yet to complete our check, which would certainly suggest...that there is infiltration of fellow travelers in churches and educational institutions is a complete understatement.

Enter Stage Right - A Journal of Modern Conservatism 5/22/00 Charles Morse "…..The NCC has been extremely active this year as they are paying for Elian Gonzales father, Juan Miguel's lawyer Graig Craig. They have been supporting Castro since the beginning and serve as a sort of American amen corner for the bloody handed dictator. Their positions have been consistently pro Communist and anti American. Their agitation for the disarming of American citizens is par for the course as a supine American population, deprived of its god given right to self defense, would be unable to ward off a possible military takeover. Of course, the Communists would not likely be bold enough to do this openly here, as they did in countries like Cuba, they would most likely call it something else. ….."

CNSNews.com 5/25/00 Bob Melvin "……A Washington, DC-based Jewish organization has admonished Vice President and presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Al Gore for his inaccuracies and 'sacriligious' reference to the Bible on Tuesday night. Gore, speaking at the Democratic National Committee fundraiser in the nation's capital, took a jab at NRA President Charlton Heston and Texas Governor George W Bush by saying, "If I remember my Bible correctly, the last time that Moses listened to a bush, his people wandered in a desert for 40 years." …….. "First of all, Moses didn't listen to a bush - he listened to the voice of God (from a burning bush). God commanded Moses to be the leader of his people, and from that encounter, Moses went on to fight against tyranny and free his people from slavery. "The Jewish people wandered in the desert for 40 years because they fashioned an idol, the Golden Calf, and lost sight of their mission. "Millions of Jews and Christians know the difference between fighting for truth and freedom, and losing the way and following after false gods. Apparently, Al Gore doesn't. ……"

Hinduism Today 1999 Swami Dayananda Saraswati "……. Religious conversion is a widely discussed topic in the Indian media these days. I think this issue needs to be thoroughly understood by all the people that count in every religion. The world's religions can be categorically said to be either aggressive or nonaggressive. Each religion has a certain promise in the form of an ultimate goal. Their faithful people try to live the prescribed life and reach the promised goal. Neither they nor their clergy are out to bring the people of other religions to their flock. Zorastrians follow their religious tradition without attempting to convert anybody to their religion. This is true with the followers of the Jewish tradition, Vedic religion (now known as Hinduism), Shintoism, Taoism and the many other religions of various tribes in the world. I call these religious traditions nonaggressive because they do not believe in aggressive conversion. ……. Then there are religions like Christianity, whose theologies, containing a number of basic nonverifiable beliefs, advocate conversion. Evangelism and proselytization are sacred commitments of the entire cadre of the highly organized clergy. The clergy-inspired laity are not any less committed to conversion. They are zealous in their mission of preaching and conversion. In their zeal, the end more often than not justifies the means. From the days of the Inquisition, every attempt recorded in history to stop their program of conversion only stoked their flame of zeal. ...... As a result, many religions with their unique cultures have disappeared, leaving behind only mammoth relics, like the ones in Greece and Mexico.. .."

The Courier 5/23/00 Brian Domingue "…… A Willis school teacher who allegedly confiscated two students' Bibles and threw them in a trash can violated the students' freedom of religion, according to a federal lawsuit filed Friday. Sara Flottman, a teacher at Lynn Lucas Middle School in the Willis Independent School District, was supervising a Saturday detention in mid-March when students and sisters Angela and Amber Harbison, age 15 and 13 respectively, arrived with Bibles among their notebooks, according to the lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Houston by Liberty Counsel. …….Among the allegations are the violation of freedom of religion, freedom of speech, and the Establishment Clause which prohibits governmental hostility against, or favoritism for, religion. ......"

yahoo.com 5/24/00 Julia Lieblich AP "….. The Presbyterian Church's highest court ruled Wednesday that local congregations have the right to conduct religious ceremonies celebrating gay unions that stop short of marriage. The decision by the 16-member court is binding unless the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) overrides it. The case, one of three on gay issues argued last week before the tribunal, stemmed from a same-sex ceremony performed in Dobbs Ferry, N.Y. The Northeast regional church court ruled that ceremonies of ``holy union'' for same-sex couples may be conducted if it is made clear they are not marriages. ….."

EWTN Website 5/23/00 "…..The archbishop of Turin said on Monday that new tests could be carried out on the Shroud of Turin to settle lingering questions about the authenticity of the cloth from the controversial 1988 tests. Archbishop Severino Poletto said, "We know it has to be science, and not faith, that has the last word on this mysterious image." He added, "We can't exclude new tests, in particular on some strands of the cloth where the image is found."…… Although the 1988 tests concluded that the cloth dated from between 1260 and 1390, many scientists disputed the accuracy of the tests because of questionable laboratory practices and because the parts of the cloth tested were damaged during the 13th century. And the tests were unable to determine how the three-dimensional, heat-resistant and apparently indelible image of a man with long hair and wounds consistent with Gospel descriptions came to be imprinted on the ancient linen cloth…….."

yahoo.com 5/25/00 Philip Pullella Reuters "….. Pope John Paul II reaffirmed the Roman Catholic Church's teaching against gay marriages Thursday, saying that only a lifelong commitment between a man and a woman could form the basis of a family. ``Attempts to define the family as something other than a solemnized lifelong union of man and woman which looks to the birth and nurture of children are bound to prove destructive,'' the pope said. ….. The pope's comments came as a dispute raged in Italy over plans for a massive gay pride rally in Rome this summer. It has been opposed by Catholic and rightist groups. Prime Minister Giuliano Amato sparked unrest within his own center-left coalition Wednesday when he said the rally was ''inopportune'' because it coincided with the Catholic Church's 2000 Holy Year. ……. The Catholic Church teaches that homosexual tendencies are not sinful but that homosexual acts are. ……"

Breakpoint 5/25/00 Charles Colson "….. On BreakPoint's web page, we recently ran a poll asking people how they thought Christians ought to engage the culture. The answers were revealing -- and, for me, a little disheartening. …… Twenty-seven percent of respondents said we ought to change the culture by winning people to Christ. Twenty-two percent thought we ought to pray for the culture. Fourteen percent said we should set up an alternative, parallel culture as an example. But just 17 percent said we ought to work within the political system to change the culture. ……"

yahoo.com 5/25/00 "….. World Pride 2000 was an issue May 24 both inside the Italian Parliament at question time and outside the building where gay and lesbian activists gathered in protest. Italian newspapers reported earlier that day that the July celebration in Rome has been moved out of the city's center in deference to Vatican and right-wing protests. Ostensibly for the sake of "public order," a rally planned for the national monument site in the Piazza Venezia will be relocated and the pride march -- already planned to avoid major religious sites -- will be rerouted so as not to cross the city center or major streets. The pro-Vatican Il Messaggero said this "compromise" was agreed on over the weekend between Italy's Prime Minister Giuliano Amato and Vatican representative Cardinal Angelo Sodano, although the Vatican would have preferred that World Pride be delayed until after its Jubilee Year if not prohibited altogether. ! E! ven the government's equal opportunities minister was quoted as saying gays and lesbians should march only "where they will not disturb anybody." ……"

Detroit News 5/19/00 Jean Torkelson "…….The image may make members wince, but when the Freedom from Religion Foundation wins a round -- like shutting down the Lord's Prayer at a senior citizens center -- you can almost hear the Sunday morning alleluias. "I won!" chortles Everett Wilson, punching his fist in the air. Welcome to the monthly meeting of FFRF, where Wilson, a guest from Nebraska, and a dozen Denver members are reviewing their latest attempts to squelch public displays of religion. ...... Wilson, a slender, elderly man with a gentlemanly air, glows as he shares his victory. By threatening to sue, he stopped 50 golden-agers from saying the Lord's Prayer at a publicly owned building. Now the seniors pause for silence, which Wilson still finds annoying: "I'm not completely satisfied because that's tantamount to prayer." ......"

EWTN 5/19/00 "……Under the name World Pride Roma 2000, international homosexual associations are planning to gather in Rome, Italy for a World Gay Pride Meeting, scheduled to be held from Saturday, July 1st, to Sunday, July 9th, 2000. …... On Saturday, July 8th, there will be a World Pride March and Parade, which will pass in front of Vatican City. "This meeting is meant as a counter jubilee event, because these organizations rightly perceive the Catholic Church and the Holy Father as strong barriers to their worldwide plans to promote homosexuality as a valid alternative life style", said Father Richard Welch, CSSR, JCD, President of Human Life International. "It is appalling that the City of Rome has given permission for this parade of perversion around the city, despite the requests of The Holy See to not allow it. Given what takes place during these 'gay parades' in the United States, it makes one shudder that they plan to directly offend the primacy seat of Roman Catholic Church during their parade." ……."What is even more shocking is the open support given by United States Vice President Al Gore to this event. In a letter postdated for July 1, 2000, he states: '...I am pleased to send greetings to everyone participating in World Pride... Roma 2000....I regret that I am unable to join you...I want to offer my very best wishes for a successful event...I look forward to strengthening our working relationship throughout the 21st century...'. Al Gore knows very well that this event will be offensive to The Holy Father and to Catholics around the world…. "

Chattanooga Free Press 5/22/00 "……In past generations, the prevalent moral standards of civilized society were such that all reputable individuals and respected organizations were just naturally expected to "do the right thing." But the degeneration of moral standards in our country is reflected by the fact that "doing the right thing" now becomes "news" -- and results in organized criticism for those who support sound convictions. …….. In our free country, organizations -- certainly religious organizations -- have a right to establish their own standards, with people being free to support them or not support them, in accord with their personal values. Properly exercising that right, the United Methodist Church made two significant statements at its recent General Conference. One, it reiterated its Bible-based position of not recognizing homosexual "marriages." Two, it expressed disapproval of "partial birth abortions.' …... But because of its stands against homosexual practices and killing babies through partial birth abortion, the church denomination has been subjected to criticism. …."

WorldNetDaily 5/22/00 Chuck Baldwin "…..On May 5, Federal District Judge Jennifer Coffman ordered historical documents hanging on the walls of public buildings in Eastern Kentucky to be immediately taken down. The ruling directly targets courthouses and public schools in Harlan, McCreary and Pulaski counties. In defending her decision, Coffman said the displays have the effect of "conveying a very specific government endorsement of religion." Judge Coffman's ruling demonstrates either a profound ignorance of America's history or a profound contempt for America's history. In either case, the judge declared war on America's deep Christian heritage. ……. The offending documents ordered removed included the Declaration of Independence, the preamble to the Constitution of Kentucky, and the national motto, "In God we trust." A page from the congressional record of Wednesday, Feb. 2, 1983, Vol. 129, No. 8, which declares 1983 as the "Year of the Bible" and lists the Ten Commandments, was likewise ordered removed. In addition, a proclamation by President Ronald Reagan marking 1983 the "Year of the Bible," a proclamation by President Abraham Lincoln designating April 30, 1863, a "National Day of Prayer and Humiliation," the Mayflower Compact, and more were ordered removed. Any document having any reference to God was ordered taken down. ………..

WorldNetDaily 5/22/00 Chuck Baldwin "…..Using Judge Coffman's reasoning, never again would people be allowed to say the Pledge of Allegiance in a public gathering because the words "under God" are in it. No public meeting could ever be opened in prayer. The Supreme Court building would need to be remodeled. Directly above the head of the Chief Justice is an engraving of the Ten Commandments, which is protected by a great American eagle. On the east front is a marble sculpture of Moses. That would have to be torn down. No longer could the Court open with the invocation: "God save the United States and the Honorable Court." ……."

AP 5/22/00 "……Church officials said Monday that they have ruled out for the moment any new scientific tests on the Shroud of Turin, which many believe is Christ's burial cloth. The Turin archbishop, Monsignor Severino Poletto, told a Vatican news conference that there has been no scientific advance to warrant any new tests. ……."

InSightMag.com 5/21/00 Suzanne Fields "……Since Clinton's dallying with "that woman" in the Oval Office, stories about religion reflect a greater tolerance for adultery. ………. In a random study of 2,365 religious news stories in the mainline media the large majority of sources and commentators tilted toward traditional morality in matters of sex - in relation to abortion, homosexuality and divorce. But when it came to extramarital affairs the researchers found a decidedly liberal trend. …… The study included religious coverage in the New York Times, Washington Post, Time, Newsweek, U.S. News & World Report and the three major network evening newscasts. When the issue of extramarital sex surfaced in the 1970s and 1980s, 89 percent of those interviewed in the religious stories condemned adultery. By the 1990s, about two in five sources, 41 percent of those interviewed, voiced toleration if not approval. ….."

CNSNews.com 5/19/00 Justin Torres "…….According to many analysts, educational vouchers are the wave of the future - yet many religious educators are worried that with federal money, will come federal mandates that may dilute the effectiveness of private religious schools. The thorny question of vouchers and religious identity was the topic at a panel discussion sponsored by the Faith and Reason Institute Friday, with teachers, administrators and elected officials lining up on both sides of the issue. Vouchers have a long history as a conservative-endorsed idea on how to reform the nation's public schools by inserting competition into the system. But only since 1995 have voucher systems actually been established in the US. Presently, there are three major voucher programs in the United States, enrolling about 11,000 of the nation's 58 million school-aged children. ……"

LewRockwell.com 5/20/00 Joseph Sobran "…….Unlike most spiritual leaders and moral teachers, Jesus of Nazareth offered no formula for worldly happiness and social order. Just the opposite: he told his disciples to take up their crosses (an image he used well before the Crucifixion) and to expect suffering. He warned them that the world would hate them as it hated Him: it was their destiny as Christians……… But the most intense persecution of Christianity occurred not in the Roman Empire, but in the twentieth century, especially in the Communist world. A large part of this story, hidden and ignored, is told in a new book by Robert Royal, The Catholic Martyrs of the Twentieth Century (Crossroad Publishing). It is hard to tabulate or even estimate the number of Catholics and other Christians murdered by modern tyrannies. The figure certainly runs into the tens of millions, though it isn't always easy to distinguish between those killed specifically for their religion and those killed for other reasons, ethnic and social. But contrary to recent slanders, the Nazis as well as the Communists regarded the Catholic Church as their mortal enemy……."

THE WASHINGTON TIMES 5/19/00 Robert Stacy McCain "…..Southern Baptists, citing the words of the Apostle Paul, Thursday proposed revising their statement of faith to declare that women should not be ordained to serve as pastors in the denomination's 41,000 churches. "While both men and women are gifted for service in the church, the office of pastor is limited to men as qualified by Scripture," the proposed revision to the Baptist Faith and Message says. The nation's largest non-Catholic denomination will vote on the statement June 13-14 when the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) holds its annual meeting in Orlando, Fla. Southern Baptists are not alone in prohibiting or discouraging the ordination of women. Roman Catholic and Greek Orthodox churches have no female priests, nor does the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, commonly called Mormons, ordain female ministers…….."

Washington Times 5/19/00 Jonetta Rose Barras "…….Founded in 1920 by Roger Baldwin, an anti-war activist and labor union advocate, the ACLU claims to be dedicated to "holding the government to the promise of freedom set forth in the Bill of Rights." Enthusiasts say the group protects the minority against the tyranny of the majority. ……...In the past 20 years, ACLU chapters across the country have repeatedly given cover to racist and fascist organizations. The group has defended suspected drug dealers terrorizing urban centers, despite calls from residents in those communities for stricter law enforcement. It fought against random, unscheduled workplace drug testing, put legal roadblocks in the way of citizens fighting for youth curfews, and opened the door to pornographic businesses despite intense opposition. And, it has gone after religion with the kind of zealotry it claims to want to protect citizens against, obfuscating the critical role of spirituality and its attendant rituals in the development of a whole individual and the preservation of a civil society. ……..The ACLU gives the perception it is an equal-opportunity defender against the encroachment of church into the domain of the state. But it appears that Christianity and Christians are the objects more frequently of the ACLU's religious animus. The outside joke is that the ACLU still is fighting the Christian Crusades. Whatever the origin, one thing is certain: The group is going to remarkable lengths to strip God out of public institutions with all the unhappy ramifications that portends……."

EWTN 5/20/00 "…..A group of Italian Catholic and Protestant leaders sent an open letter to US Vice President Al Gore on Wednesday asking him to revoke his support for the World Gay Pride festival planned for Rome this summer. "We think there can be no doubt about the highly controversial and confrontational nature of a World Gay Pride Day right in the Rome of the Jubilee," they said. ......Vatican officials have petitioned the Rome government to revoke permission for the event because other homosexual events throughout the world have included expressions of anti-Catholicism and mockery of Catholic symbols as well as public acts of erotic behavior. They also object to the timing of the event during the Jubilee Year 2000 when millions of Catholic pilgrims are expected to journey to the geographical center of the faith. ….."

United Press International 5/18/00 "…….The Indiana Civil Liberties Union Thursday filed suit to keep a Ten Commandments display from being set up on the Indiana Statehouse lawn. The Indiana Legislature adopted a measure earlier this year allowing state and local units of government to post the commandments as part of a historical exhibit. "The government should not decide which faiths or faith traditions are valid and which are not," ICLU Executive Director John Krull told the Indianapolis Star. ……Gov. Frank O'Bannon declined immediate comment but Republican Legislator Brent E. Steele, who sponsored the measure, said the ICLU is on the losing side of the issue _ constitutionally and morally. "I've used a wisecrack about this that if the ICLU was around when Moses was here, they'd have tried to get an injunction against him writing the Ten Commandments," Steele said. ….."

Tamp Bay Online 5/18/00 AP "…….A replica of a Michelangelo plaque depicting cherubs pouring water into a pail must be removed from the side of a couple's suburban home, the 4th District Court of Appeal has ruled. Sol and Renee Silberman were sued by their homeowners' association after refusing to take down the 45-inch by 25-inch terra-cotta frieze when their application to hang the plaque was denied. The Lakeridge Greens Homeowners' Association called the frieze of frolicking angels too large and too colorful for the community's taste. ……..Palm Beach County Circuit Judge Moses Baker Jr. ruled the couple was being targeted and that the community's rules were ambiguous. ……."

Tampa Wire 5/18/00 AP "……The Southern Baptists, America's largest Protestant denomination, have drawn up a proposed statement of belief declaring that women should no longer be ordained as pastors. The statement, released Thursday, will come up for ratification at the denomination's annual meeting June 13-14 in Orlando, Fla. The text reads: "While both men and women are gifted for service in the church, the office of pastor is limited to men as qualified by Scripture." A footnote cites biblical support in 1 Timothy 2:9-14 ("I permit no woman to teach or to have authority over men; she is to keep silent"). ……"

Harris Interactive via Business Wire 5/16/00 "…… Although the media pundits may obsess about the horse race between George Bush and Al Gore, and the narrow lead (49% to 45%) Bush holds over Gore, the real story of this election is the extent to which the constituencies of the two candidates resemble two very different nations. One nation is predominately Protestant, White, married, older, economically advantaged, and supportive of Bush. The other nation is much more likely to be non-Protestant, non-White, single, younger, less well-off and supportive of Al Gore. As a result, regardless of who wins, neither Bush nor Gore appears likely to emerge with the kind of strong mandate cutting across diverse demographic groups that makes major policy initiatives sustainable. This is the key finding from the latest Harris Interactive Election 2000 survey that introduces a new feature -- Family and Economic Status Segmentation……."

Harris Interactive via Business Wire 5/16/00 "…… Our religious affiliation segmentation shows the continuing importance in this campaign of religious beliefs and race. Bush continues to hold a strong lead among White Protestants, particularly Baptists and non-denominational Christians, as well as among Mormons. Gore holds equally strong leads among Black Protestants, Jews and the non-religious. Catholics remain the swing religious group although Bush currently holds a small lead among them (see Table 2)...."

THE WASHINGTON TIMES 5/17/00 Andrea Billups "……A Christian student group at Massachusetts' Tufts University that was banned from meeting on campus and stripped of its funding by the student judiciary for refusing to select a lesbian member for a leadership position has been reinstated. Members of the Tufts Committee on Student Life, a 12-member faculty/student panel voted unanimously to overturn a ruling by the Tufts Community Union Judiciary, which had revoked the status and funding of the 70-member Tufts Christian Fellowship as an officially recognized student group. "We are delighted and relieved that the TCF does not have to seek shelter in catacombs beneath the Tufts campus," said Thor Halvorssen, executive director of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, a Philadelphia-based campus liberty organization that had organized a campaign to support the Christian students.........."

WorldNetDaily 5/17/00 Julie Foster "…..The Tufts Christian Fellowship, after being officially ostracized for refusing to allow an admitted homosexual to hold a leadership position, was notified yesterday by university officials that the group's organization status and funding have been fully restored. The decision came by unanimous vote of the Committee on Student Life, a faculty and student governing body that reviews campus judiciary decisions. …….. The vote was taken Monday night, during a lengthy meeting in which the 11 committee members discussed an appeal by Tufts Christian Fellowship of the Tufts Community Union Judiciary's decision to strip the group of its funding and official club status. The Tufts Community Union Judiciary had made its decision to "de-recognize" the club in a secret, midnight meeting because the Christian club's leaders would not allow an avowed lesbian to hold a leadership position. ….."

WorldNetDaily 5/17/00 Julie Foster "…..Today, schools and courthouses in eastern Kentucky are taking down displays of historical documents -- including the Mayflower Compact and the preamble to the state's constitution -- in compliance with an order from Federal District Judge Jennifer Coffman, who said the displays are a violation of the First Amendment. ……… Set up over the course of last year in Harlan County schools and the courthouses of McCreary and Pulaski counties, the displays have the effect of "conveying a very specific governmental endorsement of religion," says Coffman's order. …… The judge claimed, however, the revised displays still do not pass constitutional muster, as they were specifically designed to promote Christianity. Displays contained the following documents:

* an excerpt from the Declaration of Independence, saying, "All men ... are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness";
* the preamble to the Constitution of Kentucky, which states, "We, the people of the Commonwealth of Kentucky, grateful to Almighty God for the civil, political and religious liberties we enjoy, and invoking the continuance of these blessings, do ordain and establish this Constitution";
* the national motto, "In God we trust";
* a page from the congressional record of Wednesday, Feb. 2, 1983, Vol. 129, No. 8, which declares 1983 as the "Year of the Bible" and lists the Ten Commandments;
* a proclamation by President Ronald Reagan marking 1983 the "Year of the Bible";
* a proclamation by President Abraham Lincoln designating April 30, 1863, a "National Day of Prayer and Humiliation";
* an excerpt from President Lincoln's "Reply to Loyal Colored People of Baltimore upon Presentation of a Bible" reading, "The Bible is the best gift God has ever given to man";
* the Mayflower Compact, in which the colony's founders invoke "the name of God" and explain that their journey was taken, among other reasons, "for the glory of God and advancement of the Christian faith."

Because displays originally included only the Ten Commandments, and because the revised displays still contained copies of them, Coffman refers to the displays throughout her ruling as "the Ten Commandments." ………..Defendants, including Judge Darrell BeShears of Pulaski County, who set up a display in his courthouse, maintain their purpose was to teach residents and students about American religious history and the foundations of the modern state. ……"

WorldNetDaily 5/12/00 Johnny Chung "…… Bob and I were both surprised and not surprised to hear them say this. It amazed us that a United States federal prosecutor was being protected by FBI agents who were concerned for the safety of him and his family. We wondered exactly who they were protecting him from and why on their own time, but we knew better than to ask such direct questions about such a sensitive issue. …… Just before dinner was served, McCaul said to Bob, "Why don't you say the prayer? We are all Christians here." That was the first time I realized McCaul was also a Christian. …….. So Bob said the prayer, and we sat down to eat. "What's this all about?" I wondered as we began eating. My own prosecutor resigned, Chuck LaBella resigned, and the FBI agents that knew my case very well were all reassigned. Now I hear my prosecutor was under FBI protection by agents on their own time. ……. During the drive, I pondered the complicated and unique situation I was in. My prosecutor, the man whose job was to put me in jail, called me a hero and became a lifetime friend. As strange as it was, though, my heart was relieved. When I got back to my hotel, I said goodbye to Andy, saying, "Andy, you are the toughest FBI agent, but you have a good heart. Thank you." "Mr. Chung," he replied, "I know you told the whole truth. Your story is always the same and always corroborates. Good luck to you." Then I went back to my room and began to sing an old hymn in my head. "What a friend we have in Jesus all our sins and griefs to bear. What a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer." ……"

Reuters 5/15/00 "……A Unification Church affiliate that owns the Washington Times newspaper has acquired United Press International wire service which broke the news of President John Kennedy's assassination but has since fallen on hard times, the agency said Monday. UPI said in an article Monday that News World Communications, established by Unification Church head Rev. Sun Myung Moon, "plans to maintain UPI as an independent news-gathering operation, while upgrading its capacity with new technologies and distribution practices." Since it was established by Moon in 1982, the Washington Times has provided a consistently conservative editorial voice in the nation's capital. Moon also lists on his Internet site newspapers in Seoul, Tokyo, Montevideo, Athens, Los Angeles and New York. ……"

USA Today 5/14/00 Guillermo Garcia "…….For years, the government has searched for the nation's best-known atheist, the abrasive woman who beamed when told that her successful 1960s lawsuit challenging school prayer had made her the "most hated person in America." But the FBI, IRS and others have not come up with whereabouts of Madalyn Murray O'Hair. They believe she was murdered, but they have no body. They don't know how she was killed. In truth, they don't actually know that she was killed. But they have a theory. ……… When Gary Paul Karr goes on trial here today , the government hopes a jury accepts that theory about the final chapter in the bizarre odyssey of O'Hair and her family. ……"

AFA Issues 5/11/00 Randall Murphee "……The CBS two-part movie entitled "Jesus" deserves, at best, mixed reviews. Some have sung its praises, but AFA reviewers cite several objectionable elements observed in the advance copy of the four-hour feature scheduled for airing May 14 and 17. Included in the film were these things:

1. About six minutes into the movie, there is partial female nudity when Mary Magdalene rises from her prostitute's bed where she has just entertained a client. Dialogue includes sexual subjects.
2. Later in the movie, there is another sex scene featuring Mary Magdalene.
3. Jesus is angry at God for the death of Joseph. When Mary refers to God as Jesus' father, he declares, "Joseph is my father!"
4. John agrees to baptize Jesus if he has repented of his sins.
5. Jesus often appears to be confused and uncertain about his ministry. ……"

AFA 5/12/00 Fred Jackson "……United Methodists have voted to continue the church's official stand against homosexuality, including a ban against Methodist pastors performing same-sex marriages. The vote came yesterday amid continuing protests from pro-homosexual forces within the church. In the end, the vote results were not a surprise. The feeling going into the Cleveland conference was that the majority of Methodists still agree with the Biblical teaching that homosexuality is a sin. ……."

Rediff 5/16/00 C K Arora "……Democratic United States Congressman Sherrod Brown has requested the House chaplain to set aside a day for a Hindu priest to deliver an invocation opening a daily session of Congress. He also asked for an opportunity to nominate a priest once time has been reserved. "Freedom of religion is the hallmark of the United States. By inviting clergy of various faiths to deliver the invocation opening the House of Representatives, we honour our diverse religious heritage," he added. ……"

American Family Association 5/10/00 Rusty Pugh "……It's a big victory for a NASA employee who was told by his supervisors that he could not post an e-mail notifying co-workers about National Day of Prayer observances. A few days before last week's National Day of Prayer, an employee at a NASA center in California sent e-mails to fellow employees telling them about the observance. It didn't take his bosses long to insist that the e-mail be removed because of its religious nature. The NASA employee contacted the Pacific Justice Institute, which threatened to sue NASA. Pacific Justice Institute President Brad Dacus says NASA quickly approved the e-mail message. ….."

Journal Sentinel 5/9/00 "…… A 4-foot wrought-iron fence must be constructed around a controversial religious statue on property that used to be part of a Marshfield park, a federal judge ruled Tuesday. But that's not high enough for the Freedom From Religion Foundation, which filed a lawsuit on behalf of a Marshfield resident when the statue of Jesus Christ was on public land. The foundation wanted a 10-foot cement wall while the City of Marshfield wanted a 3-foot fence. The Marshfield resident, Clarence Reinders, said Tuesday he'd prefer a 12-foot wall - with razor wire on the top. Neither Reinders nor Freedom From Religion officials were happy with the ruling in Madison by U.S. District Judge John Shabaz. ….."

Liberty Counsel 5/2/00 Mathew D Staver, Esq "……. In a stunning victory for student-initiated religious messages and prayer at graduation, a federal appeals court issued a ninety-four page opinion upholding the right of students to pray. After seven years and four trips to the court of appeals, Liberty Counsel obtained a huge victory when the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals handed down its ten to two ruling in favor of student free speech. …….. The ACLU has indicated that it will now ask the United States Supreme Court to review the case. If the Supreme Court accepts this case for review, we could present oral arguments in the fall of 2000. Please keep this case in your prayers. For a complete copy of the ninety-four page opinion, go to our web site at www.lc.org. ……."

The Daily Oklahoman 6/16/00 "……SOCIETY'S favorite whipping boy in recent years is conservative Christianity. And nobody gets whipped more often than the Southern Baptist denomination. Southern Baptists bring it on themselves, you say? Really? By upholding scripture as they interpret it, Baptists bring on the wrath of those who disagree with traditional Baptist values. Does anybody protest when a feminist group or a homosexual group adopts a position that applies only to its members? Baptists receive scorn for the policies they endorse which aren't even binding on the congregations that make up the denomination. It proves that the diversity crowd is interested in more than having a diverse society. It wants every segment of that society to be diverse within its own membership. In truth, it doesn't want diversity at all. It wants to impose its views on society by whatever means. ......... The elitist liberal view today is that only the liberal elite know what's best for all of us, and any organization that doesn't go along with their views deserves a whipping in the court of public opinion. This is folly and a bit frightening as well. It leads to the notion that society as a whole and its governing authorities should determine what is an acceptable belief. That's the way it worked in Hitler's Germany, as illustrated by a poignant movie on anti-Nazi Lutheran pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer that aired on PBS Wednesday night. ….."

Boundless 6/16/00 Matt Kauffman "……Boundless readers will recall that Tufts University in April decertified a Christian group, the Tufts Christian Fellowship (TCF), as punishment for its refusal to allow a lesbian to run for president. The group was not only defunded but forbidden to use the Tufts name, to meet in any room that required a reservation, to advertise any events on campus. "On the Tufts campus," an Office of Student Activities administrator reportedly told the group, "you do not exist." As it turns out, TCF's stay in limbo didn't last long. Word of the university's action spread quickly, and it didn't go over well with the public. So on May 15 the Committee on Student Life - a faculty/student group that reviews campus judiciary decisions - unanimously repealed TCF's banishment. ………Score one for the good guys. Unfortunately, score just one. ……. The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education reports that similar doings are afoot on other campuses. Ball State, Williams College and Middlebury College have all adopted "language and policies aimed at forbidding groups to bear witness to politically incorrect views while choosing their leaders." Grinnell College in Iowa and Whitman College in Washington State have banned evangelical groups on comparable grounds in recent years, the group adds. ……Think that's bad? Things are even worse in Canada, a country that's ahead of the U.S. in silencing Christians - though perhaps by only a few years. …….."

Asheville Tribune 6/15/00 David Morgan "……There was cheering and gleeful clapping in the Episcopal Church of All Souls Cathedral in Asheville, NC after the Rev. Todd Donatelli finished delivering his sermon. ………. The priest had just spoken on an experience he had as a young boy and how his parents had to discipline him because he had stepped out of line. He then drew the analogy that what was really important about this was family unity. Donatelli went on to expound on his belief that unity and harmony in the church was vital to the health of the church and sometimes hard steps had to be taken to insure that harmony and unity existed for the benefit of "all souls." ……… Although unstated in the sermon, what Donatelli had just done and was referring to was his use of the church¹s harshest punishment: he had "placed (in) Excommunicate" a long-standing member of the Church, Mr. Lewis Green. It was the latest escalation in a long-standing feud between Green and his church over Green's harsh, and sometimes explicit, writings critical of All Souls and its ministry………"

New York Times 6/15/00 Virginia Postrel "……The Southern Baptist Convention voted yesterday to amend its official statement of faith to declare that the Bible bars women from serving as pastors. Although each Baptist congregation is autonomous and the convention cannot stop a local church from ordaining or hiring a woman as pastor, the pronouncement is generally considered an important symbol of the denomination's increasing conservatism. …….. Critics also see the move as bad marketing. In a Gallup survey in May, 71 percent of Americans who expressed religious preferences said they favored "having women as pastors, ministers, priests or rabbis in your own faith or denomination." As a result, the Gallup organization said that in approving the new statement, the Southern Baptists would be "out of step with the significant majority" of religious Americans. ……… Far from being kept at home, Baptist women run many of the denomination's operations, and they have career aspirations similar to non-Baptists. Drawing the line at pastorships, Professor Iannaccone argues, is a low-cost way to preserve the church's distinctiveness while quietly accommodating broader social changes. ……"

AFR Net 6/15/00 Allie Martin "…..A Wisconsin pastor says he will sue the Milwaukee Police Department after Christians were arrested this past weekend for sharing the Gospel during a homosexual event. This past weekend, thousands of homosexuals and lesbians turned out in Milwaukee for Pridefest, a gay pride event. Pastor Ralph Ovadal, President of Wisconsin Christians United, led a group of nearly 100 Christians who used the event as an opportunity to witness to those at the Pridefest. He says many of the Christians at the event were met with hostility by police. …….. "When you have police officers walk up to you and say 'Be careful, the boss is leaning on us to do something about you,' and then something like this happens...they seize cameras." "This is not Nazi Germany, it is the good old USA. They should not be coming in stealing private property, seizing cameras, seizing videotapes, manhandling people, and arresting people like this." Ovadal says police mistreated and violated the constitutional rights of many of the Christians who were at the event. ……."I got those two separated, and the policeman just walked away. Then suddenly, for no reason, the police swarmed all over and were trying to take our videocameras." Four Christians were arrested, but Ovadal says all the trouble was a small price to pay for sharing Christ's message. ……"

AFA Center for Law & Policy 6/15/00 "…..Tupelo, MS -- In response to a lawsuit filed by the AFA Center for Law & Policy ("the Law Center") on behalf of a Christian employee group that had been denied official recognition, Sandia National Laboratories has agreed to amend its Equal Employment Opportunity ("EEO") policy and extend official recognition to the Christians. Michael Hall, William Morse, and Mary Tang, plaintiffs in the lawsuit, are employees at Sandia, the Albuquerque, NM, national security laboratory that designs all non-nuclear components for the nation's nuclear weapons. The Christians had complained in the suit that Sandia violated their constitutional rights by extending official recognition to a homosexual employee group, but denying the same privileges to Christians. The privileges accorded the homosexual group include special internal web site usage, input into managerial policies concerning diversity, and funding for certain projects. ......"

Newark (NJ) Star Ledger via AP 6/16/00 Richard N. Ostling "…… A worsening shortage of Roman Catholic priests will result in fewer Masses, more priestless parishes and deacons leading worship services, a study says. The nation's Catholic bishops yesterday held their first extended public discussion of the problem, which was highlighted by the release of the two-year study. ''Awareness of the reality is impacting us more and more. We decided we had to take a good hard look at it," said Bishop Richard Hanifen of Colorado Springs, Colo., who led the study. ……In 1965, there were 58,132 priests serving 46.6 million parishioners in the United States. Today there are 20 percent fewer priests and nearly a third more parishioners, the study said. …."

Religion Today 6/15/00 "…….Southern Baptists are sticking to the straight and narrow. They picked a new leader who is a trustee of Jerry Falwell's Liberty University, revised their statement of faith to declare that women should no longer serve as pastors, and reiterated their condemnations of abortion and homosexuality. ……. "I will lift high the banner of truth found in God's inerrant word," James G. Merritt, 47, pastor of 11,000-member First Baptist Church in Snellville, Ga., declared to delegates, called "messengers," at the annual Southern Baptist Convention meeting in Orlando. He ran unopposed and was named president of the 15.9 million-member SBC, the nation's largest Protestant denomination. …….Merritt said he would make "soul winning" in the United States and abroad his top priority. He already has been successful at his home church, where 7,826 people have been baptized and Sunday school attendance has grown from 800 to 3,250 since he took over in 1985, Baptist Press reported. Merritt succeeds Paige Patterson, president of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, N.C. ...... "We're one of the few denominations to stand strong in the sharp winds of political correctness and to call sin, sin," Merritt said, according to The Associated Press. ……."

Upi 6/15/00 "…..The American Medical Association House of Delegates voted Thursday to support action to assure hospital access to pregnancy prevention services -- tubal ligation and contraception. However, doctors also refuse to force Catholic and other faith-based hospitals to perform the services. The compromise measure, which sidestepped a call for cutting government funding for failure to provide the service, was approved by the policy-making body of the AMA by a 247-184 votes. The debate over the issue centered on changes in hospital coverage that has occurred in hospitals in California when Catholic Healthcare West acquired community hospitals where no other heath care facility existed. Dr. Michael Cohen of Walnut Creek, Calif., said that such a situation in Gilroy, Calif., resulted in the hospital denying a tubal ligation procedure to patients at the Catholic hospital in the community. ……."

The Atlanta Journal Constitution 6/13/00 Steven Lubet "……Judge Roy Moore of Etowah County, Ala., became famous when he posted a hand-carved plaque of the Ten Commandments on his courtroom wall and refused to take it down. Now Moore is about to become more famous, having just won the Republican nomination for chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court. If he wins the general election in November, he has promised to take his plaque with him to the Supreme Court, though he has not yet decided whether to place it in his chambers or in the courtroom. Moore clearly revels in the controversy. For the past three years, he has traveled the country promoting his views on law, religion and politics. He often concludes his speeches with a bit of poetry, explaining his worldview in a few short lines: "While truth and law were founded upon the God of all creation, man through law now denies him and calls it separation." ….."

FOXNEWS 6/13/00 Adam Pasick "….. Prayer may help heal the sick, according to a new review of studies on "distance healing," which encompasses prayer and other mental activities that can't be explained by contemporary science. …….Researchers at the University of Maryland looked at 23 clinical trials involving more than 2,700 patients, 57 percent of which found that prayer had a positive effect on health. Each of the studies was placebo-controlled - for example, half the patients were randomly assigned people who prayed for them, the other half received no prayer. "Absolutely, the evidence suggests that something may be going on," said lead author Dr. John Astin, an expert on alternative and complimentary medicine. "I'm open-minded to possibilities of things we don't understand." …….. The study, which appeared in this month's Annals of Internal Medicine, defines distance healing as "a conscious, dedicated act of mentation attempting to benefit another person's physical or emotional well being at a distance." It "does not necessarily imply any particular belief in or referral to a deity or higher power." …… In one of the studies included in Astin's analysis, researchers at San Francisco General Medical Center found prayer "to the Judeo-Christian God" helped heart patients. They required less assistance breathing, and needed fewer antibiotics and diuretics than a control group. "Intercessory prayer to the Judeo-Christian God has a beneficial therapeutic effect," the study concluded. ……"

Freedom Forum 6/12/00 Associated Press "…….School trustees in Grand Prairie have decided that distributing Ten Commandments book covers at schools is allowed under board policy. The decision comes more than a year after parent Karen Wiegman sought permission to distribute the covers. School officials have decided to place them in a designated spot on each campus at the start of the school year, where students can pick them up. The book covers in Grand Prairie are allowed under a board policy that allows nonschool materials - with administrative review - to be made available on campuses at a time, place and manner determined by each principal, trustees said in June 10 editions of the Arlington Morning News. Last spring, Wiegman asked for permission to distribute the Ten Commandments book covers at schools. District administrators denied her request, citing an exclusive contract with a company that already provides book covers free to the district……."

Washington Post 6/14/00 Liz Seymour "….Virginia's Education Department advised school districts yesterday to avoid telling students they have the option to pray during a mandatory daily minute of silence that will begin this fall in the state's public schools. The guidelines on implementing Virginia's new law were greeted with disappointment by some state lawmakers. They said they had championed the measure requiring the silent minute in the belief that students would be told each morning they could use the time to pray, meditate or reflect - activities that are spelled out in the legislation. "This is a very tepid response to a moral crisis in this country," said Del. Robert G. Marshall (R-Prince William). "If they're so timid about mentioning the word 'prayer,' I'm doubtful about what it will do."…… The guidelines issued by state Superintendent of Public Instruction Jo Lynne DeMary recommend that a teacher or principal simply announce: "As we begin another day, let us pause for a moment of silence."……"

Townhall.com 6/14/00 Michelle Malkin "……The nation's capital is a speech-free zone. This may be hard to believe, what with all the hot air produced here by political blowhards and blow-dried pundits, filibustering blusterers and professional mouth-flappers. But in the heart of the district and on the sidewalks outside the Supreme Court, the chilling message to people of faith is loud and clear: Sit down, shut up, and keep your views to yourself. Last week, city officials tore down a lawn sign in front of D.C.'s Lincoln Park United Methodist Church. With barely two hours' notice, a public-works crew descended on the church, and drove off with the 4-by-6 foot billboard. Pastor Harold Lewis told me his church "jumped through all the hoops" required to erect the sign, which carried scriptural citations and sermon topics. ……Neighbors complained the sign violated historic preservation standards, which the city neglected to review before granting the church a public-use permit. But the church's leading critics admit it was the religious content that really spurred them to action. On the day the sign was confiscated, it read: "Was it Adam and Eve or Adam and Steve? Genesis 2:18-25." The neighbors objected that the font size was too big, and the message too offensive to the gay community. ……."

The Times UK 6/12/00 Ruth Gledhill "….. ONE of the most influential clergymen in the Church of England has issued an apocalyptic warning that the end of the world is nigh and that time is running out before the second coming of Jesus Christ. The Rev Sandy Millar, 61, Vicar of Holy Trinity Brompton, in Knightsbridge, London, has linked the contemporary worldwide evangelical revival to the imminent return of Jesus and the start of a "New Age". …… Writing in his parish's Pentecost newsletter, Mr Millar - whose pioneering Alpha course has persuaded hundreds of thousands of people to convert, or return, to Christianity - said the warning of an influential 20th-century clergyman, that "the coming of the Lord draws nigh", had even greater urgency today. ……..People must turn to Jesus Christ "while there is still time", he said. "On some day in the future, Jesus will return, the world as we know it will come to an end, and the real New Age will begin." Apocalyptic warnings, while fairly common from charismatic or fringe churches, are rare from a clergyman of the Established Church. ….."

Time Magazine 6/12/00 David Van Biema/Carriere "…… When a public school was swept by a full-blown religious revival, should teachers have stopped it? Jesus was nervous. The recruitment assembly for the Fellowship of Christian Athletes chapter at Pearl River Central High School in Carriere, Miss., was scheduled for April 12, a mere week before the first anniversary of the Columbine tragedy. Like students all over the country this year, Brandon Smith, 16, had been drilled on how to survive school violence. And now Smith, cast as the Savior in one of the fellowship's skits, joked a bit tensely to his best friend and girlfriend, "You all, I'm Jesus in this skit; so if anybody gets shot, it'll probably be me." …………Instead of opening fire, however, the hundreds of Pearl River students watching Smith's mock crucifixion wept. They hugged one another, sang and testified to God's greatness and admitted their troubles. When the morning assembly, scheduled for 90 min., finally ended--five hours later--they knew a kind of fatigued ecstasy. They were not aware that they had presented conservative Christians and civil libertarians with a new object of debate: a full-blown, sweat-soaked religious revival in a public school. …….."

Catholic League 6/00 "…….It is a sad phenomenon of modern America that too often self-identified Catholics display anti-Catholicism or anti-Catholic rhetoric in the public arena. Anti-Catholic statements from Catholics, or those with Catholic roots, may seem to be an oxymoron. But it exists and those Catholics that engage in such inflammatory rhetoric against their own faith rarely see it as bigotry. ………. Influenced by the dominant secular culture, they see anti-Catholicism as a product of enlightened thought, rather than an inherited prejudice.1 Worse still, by the very nature of their Catholic background, their remarks gain a certain cachet in secular circles that would otherwise ignore them if the source were non-Catholic. Generally, anti-Catholicism from Catholics comes from three particular sources.

We begin with the "Uncle Pats"-- These are Catholics who find Catholic beliefs and practices embarrassing in an age of enlightened secularism. ….. Then there are those raised Catholic who convert to fundamentalist sects. Not all, of course, but too many of these former Catholics find it necessary to publicly heap scorn on their heritage. ……Finally, there are those Catholics who let their own vision of what the Church should or should not be poison their public comments. They often engage in the most shocking anti-Catholic rhetoric to push a particular agenda within the Church, with little interest in the impact such rhetoric might have on the image of the Church in the general culture. Their goal is to force change in the Church through assault. ……Papal Sin reads and argues at varying times as if its author can't decide if he is a Bible-thumping fundamentalist, a secular agnostic or a bitter ex-Catholic. But for the most part, Wills comes across as a Catholic with such a heavy-handed agenda that reasonableness or any attempt to accurately portray Church teaching has long since been abandoned for ideological zealotry. …."

Savannah Morning News 6/13/00 Ann Stifter "……It's been a Southern Baptist tradition -- women just weren't pastors. But it's never been a written tradition -- until Wednesday, when the Southern Baptist Convention decides whether to officially reject women as church leaders. "While both men and women are gifted for service in the church, the office of pastor is limited to men as qualified by Scripture," the Baptist Faith and Message will read if approved. If accepted, the sentence could prompt some area Baptist churches to withdraw in favor of other alliances that have emerged in the last few decades. ……. And the SBC follows a free church tradition, meaning each church is autonomous with its own bylaws and constitution, he said. "It's only a confessional statement, there may be some individual congregations that will still chose to ordain women as senior pastors," he said. Nearly 40 of SBC's 40,000 churches have female senior pastors. …….. "So we're not talking about some kind of over-arching occurrence in Baptist life anyway," Toalston said. "Really what you have is a Baptist statement of what we regard to be the teaching of scripture, not a corrective of some kind of over-arching problem right now." ……."

The Times Online 5/13/00 "…….Doctors at the American Medical Association are being asked to back a proposal that would force Catholic hospitals to provide birth control and sterilization procedures, procedures the church forbids. But religious leaders at Ancilla Systems Inc. in Hobart say the rule is unlikely to become law in Indiana. On Monday, Cardinal Francis George warned AMA members gathered in Chicago for their national meeting that the resolution targeted not health but faith. "I urge the American Medical Association not to join this campaign against religious freedom," he told delegates. …… The archbishop of Chicago and other Roman Catholic leaders fear it would force Catholic hospitals to provide certain contraceptives and reproductive procedures and, ultimately, would force doctors in Catholic hospitals to perform abortions. ……"

National Post 6/9/00 Luiza Chwialkowska "…..A federal funding agency has paid for a study aimed at helping feminist organizations strategize against "pro-life and pro-family" lobbyists at the Beijing +5 conference on women's equality under way this week at the United Nations. Among the transgressions of the targeted groups are not following proper procedures at a meeting, wearing buttons reading "Motherhood," lobbying governments and carrying Bibles. A 40-page paper entitled "Right-Wing Anti-Feminist Groups at the United Nations," produced by some academics at the Institute of Feminist Studies at the University of Quebec in Montreal, describes lobbying tactics of conservative groups and recommends to women's organizations "ways and means for responding." "This information should support a more adequate response to anti-feminist groups and their anti-democratic strategies during the upcoming United Nations meetings on women's rights," states the paper. ……."

Washington Times 6/13/00 Balint Vazsonyi "…….Current efforts to persuade Americans about the existence of a constitutional provision for the separation of church and state match those that seek to eliminate freedom of speech or the right to bear arms. Many will be surprised to learn that "separation of church and state" is not a phrase to be found in the U.S. Constitution. Of course, the Founding Fathers did decide against a dominant, state religion. In our time, that decision is being used to buttress the argument against any role God might have in the affairs of this nation. In our courtrooms, we no longer have to swear upon the Bible to tell the truth. Our current president has made perjury a matter of opinion. Even on customs forms, we are no longer required to sign our names under oath. ……. The generation that claims to speak for America just now proudly proclaims its independence of divine providence and looks with condescension, if not contempt, upon poor unenlightened souls who have yet to emancipate themselves from the heavenly connection. …….."

Buffalo News 6/13/00 Lauren Sadler "……I'm sure the June 6 letter protesting the hanging of the Ten Commandments in public schools raised some eyebrows. Whenever Christian Americans propose an activity that "exercises" their religious beliefs, a First Amendment, constitutionally protected right, we are told by non-believers that we should "recognize and respect the rights of others." We are reminded that we "should not infringe upon the equal rights of others" and that we are "thereby obligated to respect the same rights of others." ……… Yet when we Christians express dissatisfaction with pornography on magazine shelves, we are told, "Just don't purchase it!" When we express dismay at the content of television shows and movies, we are told, "Just change the channel!" When we raise concern over the language and ideas expressed in popular music, we are told, "You don't have to listen to it!" When we express distaste for government-subsidized pornography that is called art, we are told, "You don't have to go see it!" ……Would I be remiss in saying that these people don't have to read the Ten Commandments just because they are hanging on a wall? ……"

Liberty Voice 5/11/00 Jerry Falwell "….. Company officials then approached me in hopes that I would defend Procter & Gamble against these allegations. After discovering that the stars represent the original thirteen American colonies and the man-in- the-moon symbol was simply a continuation of a popular logo from the mid-1800's, I decided to go to bat for Procter & Gamble. …….. I used my National Liberty Journal newspaper, weekly Falwell Confidential e- mail and my Web site (http://www.falwell.com) to help reject these rumors. ……In addition, the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, The Southern Baptist Convention, and other denominations and church organizations have attempted to dispel these false tales. When Procter & Gamble needed leaders of the conservative religious community, we were there to defend them. …..Now Procter & Gamble has determined that they cannot be associated with another leading conservative spokesperson - Dr. Laura Schlessinger………"

Liberty Voice 5/11/00 Jerry Falwell "…..As I've learned through the years, defending godly precepts can be very costly. Dr. Laura can certainly attest to this. "There has been controversy surrounding Dr. Laura on a number of topics," read a statement released by Procter & Gamble earlier this week. "We've chosen n t to be involved with a show that will require time and resources to deal with this kind of controversy." You mean, like the time and resources that many conservative ministries gave to Procter & Gamble? I must say that I feel a sense of betrayal that Procter & Gamble - a company that once desperately appealed to conservative ministries for help - has so quickly turned its corporate back on a woman who has upheld the moral principles on which this nation was founded……"

AP 6/9/00 "…..A Roman Catholic college that fired a gay dean was censured Friday by the American Association of University Professors. The organization accuses Albertus Magnus College of violating the academic freedom of Michael Hartwig, a former priest who had been an associate dean and religion professor. College spokesman Mike Serpe called the censure "predetermined" and "biased," saying the school took proper steps in not renewing Hartwig's employment for a different reason. Hartwig had publicly described himself as "a priest on leave" in a newspaper article, but college administrators said he had told them when hired in 1991 that he had left the priesthood. ……"

EWTN 6/10/00 Alberto Carosa "…..A torchlit procession at 10 pm on July 1st in reparation of, and protest against, the World Gay Pride (July 1-8): this was the gist of a press conference on June 8th, 2000, by a number of Catholic-inspired organizations which are spearheading the growing opposition to the gay event. The itinerary chosen, in the words of the initiative co-ordinator, attorney Claudio Vitelli, "well symbolises the spirit of the initiative: St John Lateran, the official seat of the Roman Pontiff, will be the starting point of a pilgrimage due to reach in few hours' time, at dawn, the Marian sanctuary of Our Lady of Divino Amore (Divine Love), which is the most important sanctuary of the capital of Christendom". And in fact, attorney Vitelli recalled, the Roman faithful have always successfully resorted to Her intercession whenever Rome had been in danger, as was especially the case during World War II. ………. The initiative was fully backed by the senior MPs who took the floor during the press conference to manifest their opposition to the Gay Pride from their different angles, from the CCD deputy speaker Carlo Giovanardi to National Alliance's president of the party council for Ethical and Religious problems Gustavo Selva, from Forza Italia's president of the council for Ethical and Religious problems Maria Burani Procaccini to Northern League's president of Constitutional Affairs Commission Alessandro Cé, and National Alliance's Riccardo Pedrizzi, deputy president of his party caucus at the Senate. ……."

Toledo Blade 6/9/00 Rose Russell "….. Just when some local black churches begin responding to the need to sponsor programs on HIV and AIDS awareness, they are now being called on to address another, related concern. For decades some social problems weren't as much a priority as spiritual and civil rights issues in the black church. But it has expanded its role, doing such things as hosting health fairs where blood pressure, cholesterol, and diabetes checks are made. Now the church is being challenged on equally touchy matters as AIDS and HIV: Sex education. Indeed, parents who prefer to teach abstinence are in a Catch-22. They know that young people face peer pressure and are constantly bombarded with messages about sex. ……A Chapel Hill, N.C., public health practitioner wants the black church to teach youth sex education. In her research, she found that 76 per cent of the black clergy surveyed in North Carolina would agree to hold meetings on sexuality for youth between 11 and 14. But that figure is high because those clergy already know how important these issues are. They have had conferences on AIDS and drug and alcohol prevention. …..About 30 per cent of them wouldn't permit homosexuality to be the focus of such discussions, and only 6 per cent would agree to distribute condoms from the church. ….."

AP 6/9/00 "……Officials at an Episcopal church have cast out a member of the congregation who has spent years criticizing them for welcoming gay members. He's been banned until he apologizes. Lewis Green accused the Cathedral of All Souls in Biltmore of trampling on his First Amendment right to free speech. "I've been writing bad things about gays for some time, deleterious things, and that's what this is about," said Green, 68. "What I'm doing is exercising my First Amendment rights, and if it's about them, too bad. There's nothing they can do about it." Church leaders sent Green a letter May 30 notifying him that it was banning him from church property and denying him the sacrament of communion. The rare but reversible step of excommunication is so infrequently imposed that the Episcopal Church USA does not keep statistics. "In my experience - and I've been in this position in this church for 20 years - I've heard of this maybe three times," said Todd Duffy, director of archives for the Episcopal Church USA. ……..Green would be reinstated only after studying a Bible passage on how to treat fellow Christians and apologizing in writing for making an obscene gesture to the congregation at a Mass last December. ……."

Zenit News Agency 6/8/00 "…….A debate on the role of the Vatican in international politics started from the very beginning of the special session of the U.N. General Assembly, "Beijing+5." Amnesty International has accused the Vatican of "a hybrid alliance" with Iran, Algeria, Nicaragua, Syria, Libya, Morocco, and Pakistan, to create obstacles in the preparation of this summit. Archbishop Renato Martino, Vatican Permanent Observer at the United Nations, responded to Amnesty International on Vatican Radio. "I am profoundly surprised and very disappointed with Amnesty International's accusations against the Holy See. Amnesty International should have a better memory, because the Holy See has walked on the path they also follow, that is, the defense of human rights in all areas: the right to life, the right to work, development. Obviously they have not followed the preparatory work of this General Assembly and are speaking from hearsay. In any case, I confirm that the Holy See has always struggled in favor of women. In Beijing, it was the only group that wanted a declaration on the dignity of women, and no country, I repeat, no country wanted to underwrite this affirmation." ……"

Dallas Morning News 6/11/00 Berta Delgado "…… The country's largest Protestant denomination is expected on Tuesday and Wednesday to make additions to its basic statement of faith, including a prohibition against women serving as pastors and a statement against homosexuality. Other proposed revisions to the Baptist Faith and Message would continue to pull conservative Baptists even further apart from more moderate Baptists. ……. The Southern Baptist Convention doesn't shy away from controversy, and the last few years are proof. The nation's largest Protestant denomination has been particularly vocal during its annual June conventions. …..But no matter what critics may say, Southern Baptist leaders say they are just doing what they are supposed to do as Christians. "I had someone tell me the other day, 'Don't you know that you're rubbing the cat's fur the wrong way?'" said Dr. Paige Patterson, outgoing president of the 15.9 million-member denomination. "And I said, 'Then turn the cat around.' "He was having trouble understanding why we didn't mind having the world against us. You get used to it, but you don't go out looking for it. But neither should any Christian be surprised, because Jesus said the world hated him and they would hate Christians. For us to be astonished would be to fail to hear what our master said." ……"

Boston Globe 6/11/00 David Abel "…… The born-again Christians came out for battle yesterday toting apocalyptic signs warning the thousands of gays and lesbians reveling in yesterday's annual Pride March of a future filled with fire and brimstone. But their ranks were thin. And wherever they went to preach, they were quickly overwhelmed. One of them, Jeffrey, who did not give his last name, wore a white robe with a flame-colored sign hanging from his neck bearing this unpopular message: ''America Will Burn.'' The 29-year-old from Chelsea passed out pamphlets titled, ''Doom Town: The story of Sodom.'' ''All I'm doing is trying to save people,'' he said as a chorus of boos and taunts howled from all around him. ''These people here have to repent. If they don't, they're going to hell.'' …….. Nik Swinden, 29, of Cranston, R.I., questioned Jeffrey on why he was using religion to ostracize other people. Then she took a different tack: ''I love the God squad,'' she said. ''Really, they're too funny. But how could God have a problem with all these people?'' ….. Leading the sometimes scantily clad group was the Moving Violation Motorcycle Club, featuring scores of lesbians thundering down the street. ......... "

The Wall Street Journal 6/6/00 Harry Stein "……But the fact is that over the years, and more explicitly since her embrace of Orthodox Judaism, Dr. Laura has cast her message in traditional religious terms; routinely referring to the Ten Commandments or the Old Testament, even when driving home a point about office gossip or someone's mother-in-law. In that sense, to activists pressuring Paramount and would-be sponsors to drop her show, she has long been anathema, not just because they find particular remarks she's made bigoted or hateful but because she represents an entire world view they consider archaic. ……… In fact, for a time Dr. Laura was unaccustomedly ambivalent on the issue of homosexuality, her adherence to biblical teaching warring with her innate sympathy for decent people who saw their sexuality as part of who they were. Even today she points out her position is nothing more than that adhered to by traditionalists of many faiths: to condemn the sin but not the sinner. "Unless I have hallucinated," as the stopdrlaura.com Web site quotes her, "I have never made an anti-gay commentary. I have made anti-gay-activist agenda commentaries." ……..Her position on the "deviancy" comments is that as alien as such terminology might ring to contemporary, secular ears, it is literally accurate: Homosexual behavior does deviate from the norm. Furthermore, according to scripture, it is proscribed. End of argument. Is that "hate speech"? If it is, then all traditional religious teaching on the subject is hate speech. ……"

NewsMax.com 5/24/00 Dr James Herson "……. Federal District Judge Jennifer Coffman recently engaged in the ultimate semantic distortion of the law. Through use of a twisted interpretation of the First Amendment's text, which over the last several decades activist jurists have carefully crafted, Judge Coffman ruled that displays of priceless American treasures must be removed from public view. We are, amazingly enough, referring to historic documents that set forth the soul and conscience of our laws, our heritage and our very culture. ......... Documents from which the eyes of the public must be sheltered include: the Preamble to the Constitution of Kentucky, which speaks of gratitude to Almighty God for the "civil, political and religious liberties we enjoy"; a portion of the Declaration of Independence, which states that "all men ... are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness"; the Mayflower Compact, which speaks of the name of God and explains that one of the reasons for the journey of the early settlers was "for the glory of God and the advancement of the Christian faith"; and lastly, that perennial favorite of the dubious defenders of civil liberties, the Ten Commandments. …."

Charisma News 6/6/00 "…..The American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ) filed suit yesterday on behalf of Thomas and Melody Horne, who live in East Brainerd County. The Hornes each wanted to buy a $50 brick inscribed "Hope Horne, to the Glory of God," but were told by school officials that they could not use any language referring to God. They suggested writing the dedication in Latin instead--"Hope Horne, Soli Deo Gloria"--but were turned down again. The Hornes' suit argues that the brick project--which has raised around $15,000 for the school--was open to everyone in the community, and the application placed no restrictions on messages. ACLJ attorney Stuart Roth told "The (Chattanooga) Times & Free Press": "I'm not sure what theory of law [the school] relied on, but if it was separation of church and state, clearly they have misread the application of the law. Most of these [bricks] are signed by the family. Individual citizens are always free to engage in religious speech. It's not the government speaking. It's the family speaking, not the school." ........."

American Family Association 6/6/00 Chad Groening "……Rita Cline, the embattled treasurer of Shawnee County, KS, says she will not back down to the latest intimidation from the ACLU. In an earlier story, AFR News chronicled the struggle of Ms. Cline, who has refused to remove posters from her office, on which are printed the national motto: "In God We Trust." Yesterday, an ACLU representative came to her office and demanded that she remove the posters or face a lawsuit. "She came with three demands," Cline says. "One of those was that I take the poster down. When she suggested what maybe the ACLU would approve, she clearly said that they would not consider approving anything made by a Christian organization."......... "Hanging the national motto is not promoting my religious beliefs," she says. "It's patriotic, and it's a very appropriate slogan for an office that is demanded and mandated to collect money." ……."That slogan is on every piece of United States currency, and it's most appropriate for the county treasurer's office to display it." ......,:

yahoo.com 6/5/00 Reuters "……A sex and religious issues column written by an Episcopal bishop made its debut Monday on an Internet Web site that includes erotic art and a column by a former porn star. Bishop John Shelby Spong's column, ``The Religious Write,'' appeared on ThePosition.com, and already was drawing e-mail messages to the editor that Spong is ``going to hell'' and ``is not a Christian.'' The 69-year-old bishop, who retired four months ago as head of the Newark, N.J., Episcopal Diocese to pursue writing and lecturing, has been attacked regularly for his liberal stands, including the approval of gay clerics. ……Spong's first contribution posits that the Ten Commandments are chauvinistic. ``When one looks at the Ten Commandments closely, the anti-female bias is clear,'' and, ``The church does guilt better than it does anything else,'' the bishop writes. The column appears with cover story, ``The 100 Most Important People in Sex'' (including Spong), an erotic art gallery and a sex newswire. Contributors include former porn star Candida Royalle as well as Nadine Strossen, president of the American Civil Liberties Union, writing on sexuality and the law. ......"

Religion Today 6/6/00 "…… Stung by assertions that preaching can lead to hate crimes, some of the country's most prominent Christian leaders are reasserting the constitutional right to evangelize. Eighty-four scholars, theologians, and church leaders last week endorsed a document called The Chicago Declaration on Religious Freedom: Sharing Jesus Christ in a Pluralistic Society. They include Charles Colson of Prison Fellowship, theologians Carl F. H. Henry, J.I. Packer, R.C. Sproul, and Franklin Graham, son of evangelist Billy Graham. ...The leaders rejected the notion that evangelism undermines "a peaceful, pluralistic society and may lead to intolerance, bigotry, and even violence," but said that only a society that permits free discourse "can safeguard the true liberty, freedom, and human dignity we all pursue." ... ...Southern Baptists last year announced a plan to evangelize Chicago this summer. An interfaith coalition asked the denomination to reconsider the campaign, fearing that it might lead to violence against Jews, Hindus, and Muslims. ...That was "the straw that broke the camel's back," Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, told the Dallas Morning News. Saying that evangelism leads to hate crimes is nonsense, he said. "The declaration puts our critics on notice that they're going to have to defend what appears to a lot of Americans to be intolerance." ……"

Jewish World Review 6/6/00 Naomi Schaefer "……TEN YEARS AGO, Kristopher Okwedy fled Nigeria, hoping to escape the persecution imposed on Christians there. "The wonderful thing about this country," he explains about his new home in America, "is the freedom to express yourself." But this year, Mr. Okwedy found out that freedom was not as absolute as he had thought. Mr. Okwedy and his Keyword Ministry leased space on two billboards on New York's Staten Island. Each one cited four translations of Leviticus 18:22, which in the Living Torah translation by Rabbi Arye Kaplan reads: "Do not lie with a male as as you would with a woman, since this is a disgusting perversion." A few days after the billboards went up, the president of PNE Media, the company that owns the billboards, called. He told the pastor that the messages were going to be taken down because they were too offensive. ……"

EWTN 6/6/00 "…..WASHINGTON, DC (CWNews.com) - Vice President Al Gore this week refused to answer calls to back down from his endorsement of a controversial homosexual activist event planned for Rome in July. The New York-based Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights asked the vice president, who is also the Democratic nominee for president, to reverse his endorsement of the event which he gave in a letter dated March 23. In that letter to organizers, Gore said he intended to "stand ready to ensure gay and lesbian Americans have the opportunity to participate fully in a nation and a world that is united in those goals of importance to us all." …….. The event, planned for July 1-8, has been criticized for taking place during the Church's Jubilee Year and during a week with several high-profile religious events. Similar "gay pride" events elsewhere have included homoerotic satire of the Church because of her teaching that homosexuality is immoral. ……"

EWTN 3/6/00 "…….A long-running, heated dispute about an international homosexual and lesbian march to be held in Rome in July took a fresh twist this weekend, as organisers of the demonstration insisted that they be allowed to include the Colosseum in their march itinerary. The march will begin in Porta San Paolo, then wind its way past some of the city's most famous ancient monuments to end up at the famous Roman race track, the Circus Maximus, where a mega concert is to take place, including stars such as Grace Jones, Geri Haliwell and Gloria Gaynor. But the association which is organising the event, the Mario Mieli Circolo, has run into trouble with the police over its demands to be allowed to march past the Colosseum. The police are apparently not keen on permitting this detour, ostensibly because of the traffic disruption that it would cause. ….."

CNS News 6/6/00 "……"Was it Adam and Eve or Adam and Steve?" asked the sign posted on the lawn of the Lincoln Park United Methodist Church in Washington, DC - the same sign that city workers abruptly dismantled and carted away last week. The message advertised a May 30 sermon against homosexuality. Church leaders say the sign's message, not its size, is the real reason it was removed. The city defends its action on zoning grounds, saying the church didn't get the two permits it needed to erect the 4-1/2-by-6-foot sign earlier this year. ……..Church leaders say the removal of the $5,000 sign is an attempt to silence their religious message. "If the gay community can rally and have a movement to support their right to a cause, why can't we freely express our beliefs?" asked the Rev. Harold Lewis. According to the Post, at least one church neighbor agreed that the words on the sign were the last straw: "That sent us right over the top," Elizabeth Nelson is quoted as saying. …….."

New York Times 6/8/00 Kevin Sack "……Despite being vastly outspent, Roy S. Moore, the Alabama judge made famous by his defense of the Ten Commandments, won a convincing victory in Tuesday's Republican primary for chief justice of that state's Supreme Court. "Of course, we give our first recognition to God," Judge Moore said in an interview today. "He has providence over us, and his will is something that can't be thwarted." …….. And yet, Judge Moore won 55 percent of the vote, surprising many political analysts by easily avoiding a runoff……..Judge Moore, 53, will now face Judge Sharon Yates, a Democrat who sits on the Court of Civil Appeals, in the general election in November. Judge Yates had no opposition in her party's primary. ……."

Freedom Forum 6/1/00 AP "…..The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has dismissed a case by a student who sued the Aledo Independent School District for allegedly infringing on her right to present a graduation-day prayer. Katherine Hackleman, 18, sued the district in May after a school district attorney deleted parts of a prayer she had written for graduation day. When she and the Liberty Legal Institute threatened to sue, the school district relented and allowed her to present the unedited prayer. It contained phrases such as "Heavenly Father" and "Thank you for having a plan to prosper us." Instead of delivering the speech, the Liberty Legal Institute, a socially conservative group based in Plano, sued, asking the court to declare the school's review of Hackleman's prepared remarks unconstitutional. A U.S. District Judge in Fort Worth, however, dismissed the case. The Liberty Legal Institute then appealed to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. ……"

Washington Post 6/4/00 Craig Timberg "….. CHILHOWIE, Va. - Derrek Martin's worn black Bible is a source of inspiration to him, God's own word revealed and true. And for a few months at the public high school here in this Southwest Virginia town, it was also his textbook. Martin, 18, and the 41 other students who have completed "Bible History" courses at Chilhowie High School are part of a national experiment aimed at returning the Bible to public schools decades after educators, fearing the wrath of the U.S. Supreme Court, tossed it out……… A growing number of educators and interest groups agree that teaching about the Bible and other religious texts is vital to a well-rounded education. But watchdog groups argue that such courses can tread perilously close to government-sponsored religious indoctrination, which the U.S. Constitution forbids. The line is thin, they say, between teaching about the Bible and teaching from the Bible......."

Catholic News 6/2/00 "…..The Diocese of Kaduna, Nigeria, said on Monday that a priest was murdered by Muslim extremists last week and a bounty had been placed on the head of all Catholic priests. The diocesan spokesman, Fr Peter Yakubu, said 26-year-old Father Clement Ozi Bello, who was ordained just last year, was stopped as he drove to his parish and dragged from his car by a mob. Fr Yakubu said the assailants tied up Father Ozi Bello, gouged out his eyes, and then killed him. He added that Father Ozi Bello was from a Muslim family and had converted to Christianity. ……"

phillynews.com 6/3/00 Ron Goldwyn "…… The local United Methodists' sedate debate over homosexuality came out onto a city sidewalk last night. The Methodist Federation for Social Action held a candlelight prayer vigil outside Tindley Temple United Methodist Church, Broad and Fitzwater streets, in solidarity with gays and lesbians who are barred from ordination or holy unions. The social action group "supports the elimination of heterosexism in the United Methodist Church," said organizer the Rev. Jay Newlin, of Drexel Hill UMC. "We are standing in support of those who won't be ordained because of their sexual orientation." Afterward, some of the 100 or so demonstrators went inside for the Methodists' annual ordination service of 23 clergy members. It was designed to celebrate the denomination's diversity as part of the four-day Eastern Pennsylvania Conference that concludes tomorrow. ……"

Religion Today 6/8/00 "…… Thu. Jun. 8 -- A crew from the Washington, D.C., Department of Public Works arrived at Lincoln Park United Methodist Church June 1, disconnected the new $5,000 sign, loaded it onto a flatbed truck, and drove away, The Washington Post reported. On the sign were the words, "Was it Adam and Eve or Adam and Steve?" and a reference to Genesis 2:18-25, which describes God creating Eve for Adam. …… The church says it was not the sign, but what was on the sign that angered residents. "If the gay community can rally and have a movement to support their right to a cause, why can't we freely express our beliefs?" pastor Harold D. Lewis, Sr., said. ……"

WorldNetDaily 6/8/00 Julie Foster "…..The Clinton administration collaborated with Cuba in the Elian Gonzalez matter, according to government documents obtained by Judicial Watch. ……."These 'smoking gun' documents help prove what we've suspected -- that the Clinton-Gore administration was doing the bidding of Fidel Castro when they raided the Gonzalez home using 151 armed federal agents," said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. ………Additionally, Immigration and Naturalization Service Commissioner Doris Meissner expressly orchestrated the visit of Elian's grandmothers. Another message, dated Jan. 15, shows Meissner planned the January 2000 in consultation with Cuba, and that INS knew it could not seize Elian without a court order. Meissner also sought to hide the agency's role in the visit. "We spent a great deal of time discussing how the grandmothers' visit could be facilitated," the email reads. "The conclusion reached was that INS cannot assume the role of facilitator for this visit nor provide access to Elian. DM [Doris Meissner] was FIRM (sic) about not having any INS involvement in this initiative. If our conversations in Cuba can proceed with the understanding that INS would not be involved, then DM would be most interested in hearing more about this idea." ……."

WorldNetDaily 6/8/00 Julie Foster "…..But the INS memo clearly shows the agency was indeed involved in making the visit happen and that it even used the Catholic Church in the process. "Our contacts in Miami believe that the Catholic Church in Miami would respond to a direct (via Cardinal Ortego) request from the grandmothers for the church's assistance in scheduling a visit," wrote INS employee Janelle Jones in what she prescripts as a summary of a meeting with Meissner. "Miami's advice was to have the grandmothers use Cardinal Ortega's office to make contact with either Cardinal Law or Archbishop Favalora in Miami. Such a plea coming from the grandmothers would be very difficult for the church to ignore. Absent a direct request from the family, no one thinks the Miami church will get involved," Jones continued. ……"

THE WASHINGTON TIMES 6/5/00 George Archibald "….."JUSCANZ attempted to hijack the preparatory negotiations in March by pushing a consensus over issues regarded as objectionable and unconstitutional by many developing nations, the Arab nations, and the Holy See," the Vatican's delegation at the United Nations, said Maria Sophia Aguirre, an NGO representative of the National Institute of Womanhood, based in Bethesda, Md. "Perhaps one of the more contentious of the JUSCANZ-backed issues was language regarding the reproductive rights of the girl-child," Mrs. Aguirre said. "Such language aimed to ensure the girl-child's right to a 'full realization' of her sexuality and sought to entitle the girl-child to private and confidential sexual and reproductive information, counseling and services 'both in and out of school' by implementing national mechanisms, policies and programs." Mrs. Aguirre said the attempted expansion of U.N. women's rights initiatives to cover minor children in the sexual realm has "angered" women from less-developed countries, where religious faith is strong......."

NY Post 6/4/00 Linda Massarella "….. A book that suggests the Catholic priesthood is becoming a gay profession has quietly become a bestseller among priests and Catholics. Copies of "The Changing Face of Priesthood," written by the Rev. Donald B. Cozzens, have sold out of many Catholic bookstores - and currently ranks 64th on Amazon.com's bestseller list. "It's doing pretty well. Not super-duper, but not badly at all," Sister Joshua, who works at the Catholic book store Pauline Books and Media on East 52nd Street, said yesterday. "We sold our copies and had to order it a couple of times." ...... The book is a hard look at the church written by a respected priest, the head of the St. Mary Seminary and Graduate School of Theology in Cleveland who previously penned a book on priestly spirituality. ……… Cozzens blames the Vatican's unwillingness to talk about the culture of celibacy imposed on priests and that "recent clerical scandals of sexual misconduct with young boys have severely tarnished their collective reputation." Cozzens, who did not conduct his own studies, says he gleaned the information first-hand and from published articles. "At issue at the beginning of the 21st century is the growing perception - one seldom contested by those who know the priesthood well - that the priesthood is or is becoming a gay profession." He also asserts that the number of gay seminarians who have "sexual contacts and romantic unions" is high enough to make some straight seminarians very uncomfortable. ......"

Breakpoint 6/1/00 Charles Colson "…… If the average person were asked to name the top religion stories of the past year, chances are they'd remember a scandal involving a minister, a battle over church-state relations, or maybe an assault on religious people or their churches. In his new book, HOW THE NEWS MAKES US DUMB, John Sommerville says there's a reason why the media's coverage of religion is always so negative: it's because religion and daily news simply don't mix. We all remember the headlines about how outraged Hindu and Jewish leaders became over the reports that Baptists were planning to pray for their conversion. The networks were all over that story. Sex scandals involving clergy always make page one, so they're hard to forget. And remember all those Y2K stories? Many focused on how those crazy religious folks were stocking up on Spam, and bracing for the end. ...... Sommerville says there's a good reason why church controversies get publicity, while good works go unnoticed. It's because religion and the news are polar opposites in their approach to life. "Religion celebrates what we believe to be settled and even eternal," Sommerville says. But the news is about change and excitement. So reporters yawn when Christians go to church or volunteer at soup kitchens. ……"

Baptist Press 6/5/00 John Yeats "……When ABC (Disney's educational media wing) news program "20/20" aired across the country May 12, you knew quickly there was an agenda to discredit the beliefs of those of us who believe we are saved by the blood of Jesus as revealed in the Bible. The comparative approach by the producers-turned-editorialists weighed heavily on the side of multicultural pluralism. ……. The segment, by ABC News religion correspondent Peggy Wehmeyer, centered on a 12-year-old Jewish boy in the Dallas area who made a profession of faith in Christ last year at a Southern Baptist church youth rally and subsequently declined to proceed with his planned bar mitzvah, the Jewish community's formal acknowledgment that a child has become an adult in matters of faith and reason. ……. The parents of the young man were upset to learn their son had embraced Jesus as the Christ. After his parents and Hebrew school principal counseled with him, the youth recanted the conversion and, according to the program, plans to proceed with the Jewish ceremony later this year. ……..The producers of this 20/20 segment chose this event as a platform to comment on those of us who believe in the exclusivity of the gospel, that there is only one way to God, Jesus Christ. The program cast Southern Baptists as people who are hard-nosed, Bible-thumping biblicists, who are intolerant of other faith systems. …… The reality is, our definition of "tolerant" is rather normative. We oppose the coercion of people belonging to other faith groups, but at the same time we reserve the right to lovingly share with all people the gospel truth. Tolerance does not mean other belief systems are equal in value to the truth about our God revealed in the Bible. We believe the truth of God's Word is complete, and we are compelled to obey its teaching. ......"

Baptist Press 6/5/00 John Yeats "……To make matters worse, the ABC program stated there are "Christian" groups -- the Roman Catholic Church, the United Methodist Church and the United Presbyterian Church -- that discourage the conversion of Jews. The program went on to state that many Christian denominations, including moderate Baptist affinity groups, believe one can get to heaven without believing in Jesus. Jim Sibley, an interfaith evangelism missionary for the North American Mission Board, said, "It's evident our society does not want to hear that the Bible says there is only one way to God." One member of a faith group said on the 20/20 program, "That kind of religious exclusivity just doesn't belong in today's society anymore." ……… The above statement is illustrative of the new politically correct bigotry that exists against those who hold to the teachings of God's Word. Baptists have a past, and contemporary, history of giving people the liberty to believe differently than we do. However, we also reserve the right to privately and publicly disagree with those who reject or disbelieve the Bible. We take a lot of heat protecting the religious liberties of those who disagree with us, but we have the same the liberty to publicly share the truth about Jesus. …….We have become a minority voice in our culture. If you listen to the media moguls, they would lead you to believe that Bible-believing Christians are what is wrong with America today……"

MSNBC 6/16/00 "…..BRIDGEPORT, Conn., June 16 - A state committee under fire for dropping the Boy Scouts of America off the list of eligible charities for state employee payroll deductions is now taking heat from the Roman Catholic Church. State workers can contribute to a Catholic organization that supports abortion, birth control and endorses the concept of married women and men for the priesthood. And the inclusion of Catholics for a Free Choice on the payroll deduction list has drawn fire from the Diocese of Bridgeport and the New York-based Catholic League. ……..It's the latest dispute facing the Connecticut State Employee Campaign Committee, which determines the charities eligible for donations from state workers. The Boy Scouts of America are suing the state for being bumped from the list after state officials concluded the Scouts ban on hiring gay leaders violates state discrimination laws. ….."

EWTN 6/18/00 Alberto Carosa "…..Rome. If what happened last Saturday evening, June 10th, in one of the most central squares in historic Rome, piazza del Pantheon, can be regarded as a foretaste or a dress rehearsal of the upcoming World Gay festival, then the most pessimistic fears of those who had previously cautioned about its highly controversial nature, cannot but be corroborated. In fact last Saturday evening a hundred homosexuals gathered to protest what they view as the unjust exclusion of the Colosseum from their July 1-8 itinerary, vowing to proceed with their plans irrespective of the authorities orders to use a different route. Whether by coincidence or design, their somewhat vociferous protest was taking place before a Catholic Church, while inside the solemn vespers for Pentecost were being celebrated by Msgr Virgilio Levi. ……… Now, if hundred thousand homosexuals are expected to converge from around the world to Rome in early July, who can guarantee that many other churches will not be likewise besieged? ……"

EWTN 6/18/00 Alberto Carosa "….." And in a subsequent tirade in Milan-based Il Giornale (June 5, 2000) the extreme left "guru" and post-communit MEP Gianni Vattimo, who is also an avowed homosexual, proclaimed: "The gay parade is against the Catholic Church and rightly so". This increasingly hardline attitude is plunging gays into a growing moral isolation, as is evidenced by the increasing number of left wing politicians who have been backtracking on their initial, wholehearted support of the Gay Pride. There are commentators who explain these turnarounds, which infuriated the powerful gay lobbies, with the fact that various campaigns by Catholic NGOs are starting to bite. ……… "

EWTN 6/18/00 Alberto Carosa "…..In a full page interview in the major Rome's conservative daily Il Tempo (June 9,2000), prof. Roberto de Mattei, president of another organization in the forefront of the opposition against the Gay Pride, claimed that the event to be staged in Rome in early July has to be seen against the background of an overall strategy pursued by a gigantic international lobby to destabilise the principles of traditional society. "The homosexual lobby do not simply call for certain freedoms to be acknowledged, freedoms that it in fact already has", he argued. "Its ultimate aim is the homosexualization of society and discrimination against traditional-minded people. In other words, hatred against homosexual persons as such is incompatible with the spirit of the Gospel, hatred against the homosexual practice and, most of all, homosexual ideology is a duty for all Christians". ......,:

Orlando Sentinel 6/18/00 Charlie Reese "…..Suppose, as the Italian communist Antonio Gramsci advocated, that an attempt is being made to control the Western mind. Suppose that "control of the Western mind is to be achieved not only by means of the dishonest use of language, but also through operations to demoralize the West through corrosive attacks on society's institutions, the active promotion of drug abuse, and the spread of agnosticism, nihilism, permissiveness and concerted attacks on the family in order to destabilize the society." The quotation is from a forward to the book The Perestroika Deception by Anatoliy Golitsyn, a former KGB officer who defected in 1961. Even though this book was published in 1995, it is Golitsyn's earlier book New Lies for Old, published in 1980, that lends credibility to Golitsyn. …….. In that first book, nearly a decade before it happened, Golitsyn predicted the fall of the Berlin Wall, the apparent collapse of communism and the apparent liberalization of Soviet society. He stated that it was all part of a grand strategy of strategic deception. He hasn't changed his mind. ……..The idea is to lull the West into disarmament and to create the conditions in the West that would make it easy for it to converge into a new world order, run, of course, by the communists. Is it true or is it paranoia? …….Religion is under such constant attack by secularists that most journalists think that routine beliefs about the Bible are "controversial." There is, for example, no question whatsoever that the Christian Bible condemns homosexual behavior and clearly does not authorize women to be pastors or priests. That may be news to the secular crowd, but it's ancient history to those of us who grew up in that old-time religion. ……. "

WBAL 6/22/00 Ron Smith "…….Western intellectuals have a grand time scoffing at the backwardness of religious fundamentalists, particularly Islamic fundamentalists. Secure in their supposed freedom of thought, they worry in their columns and their magazine articles about the threat to honest inquiry and debate posed by the mullahs of the Iran, the insurgents in Algeria, and the militants in Egypt. How retrograde, how unenlightened, how repulsive the enforcement of religious dogma seems to them. …….. The Supreme Court rules that invoking God before high school football games in Texas violates the First Amendment, and that non-believers or believers in other faiths must be protected from the beliefs of the majority being inflicted upon them. …….

WBAL 6/22/00 Ron Smith "……. Our own taboos are enforced as rigorously as those of the Islamic world. But they are not the taboos of the Southern Baptists or the Catholic Church, rather the patchwork quilt of totemic beliefs of the political left. You think, perhaps, I exaggerate. If so, consider this. In Egypt and elsewhere in Muslim nations, writers and others who utter heretical thoughts are harassed and sometimes imprisoned. In Germany, France and Canada, such folks (whose heresy is to question the dogmatic assertions of the leftists) are harassed and sometimes imprisoned. The only thing that keeps Thought Crimes from being similarly punished in the United States is the First Amendment, which is under attack even as you read this. ………. Many devout Christians of our time witness the intelligentsia's relentless attacks on their faith and conclude we live in an age of skepticism and disbelief. But the fact is we humans must have faith because we are wired that way. What changes with time is not the amount of faith, but the direction it takes. Established faiths give way to new ones. And our society is very little different than, say, the Egyptian, in enforcing conformity…….."

Ether Zone 6/21/00 Shelley McKinney "…… The problem I have with the homosexual lobby is not with their homosexuality, which I view as just another sin in the long list of sins that every single one of us has committed: it's their arrogance that raises my hackles. The essence of the hate crimes legislation is to force an acceptance of the homosexual lifestyle on a largely unwilling American populace. I know a lot of evangelical Christians, and I don't know a single one who thinks that homosexuals should be persecuted, hated, or murdered. I don't know a single person who wasn't horrified by those disgusting "Christian" people who were holding up signs at Sheppard's funeral that read "God Hates Fags." But even that isn't good enough for the homosexual lobby. They will bear no dissent, and anyone who suggests that homosexuality is morally wrong had better be ready for his own personal onslaught of hate. I've been aware for a long time, as have you, no doubt, that there are certain kinds of bigotry which are acceptable and very politically correct, and it is very PC to vilify anyone who doesn't embrace homosexuality with joy. Our very opinions stand the risk of being monitored and judged by the PC crowd, and even right now, reasonable debate simply won't be tolerated. ......"

Charisma News 6/21/00 "……. Former actress and political activist Jane Fonda has spoken for the first time about her newfound Christian faith. In an interview with Oprah Winfrey for the TV chat show host's new "O" magazine, she talks about feeling "this incredible connection to God, or what I call the Holy Spirit." …… Raised in an agnostic home, the 62-year-old began her spiritual search about 10 years ago. She now attends a black Baptist church in Atlanta. "It's been difficult, because when you're famous and the word gets out that you're a Christian, every church is saying, 'Even Jane Fonda.' People come up to me in airports and throw their arms around me." ……The two-time Oscar winner widely vilified for her strong anti-Vietnam War stand says she will "go to her grave" regretting being photographed in a Vietcong antiaircraft carrier during a visit to the country. "It galvanized such hostility. It was just thoughtless. I wasn't thinking." ..."

LewRockwell.com 6/22/00 Judith Vinson "…… The Supreme Court decision declaring it unconstitutional for athletes to pray before games was not just a blow to religious freedom. For all us in Prosperity, Texas, the decree was downright dangerous. …….. A lot of good people here spent years flushing all the praying types out into open places where the worst that could happen was a few broken legs or an occasional fractured skull. The real reason high school football in Texas has a quasi-religious nature is because it's a place where the only sin is losing the game. …….The school day began, then, with a prayer. This was before it was learned how truly dangerous that might be. We prayed prayers that might last for a long time, not because we were really into it, since we had already made up our minds on the matter, but because we dreaded the day's lesson which usually consisted of something on the order of a sing-song session of verb conjugation. At the time, praying for the rain the farmers needed, but at the same time dooming all our daddies who were in the building trades, to be unable to pay their bills down at the lumber yard seemed less like courting disaster than the days' lessons. …….."

EWTN 6/22/00 "……The US House of Representatives voted on Tuesday to protect non-profit religious broadcasters by preventing the Federal Communications Commission from regulating the content of broadcasts by noncommercial radio and television stations.The bill, passed 264-159, allows a nonprofit organization to gain a noncommercial educational license if it broadcasts material that the organization determines serves an educational, instructional, cultural, or religious purpose. ..."

WorldNetDaily 6/24/00 Dr. Jerry Falwell "……While I was in Orlando, Fla., during the Southern Baptist Convention's annual meeting earlier this month, I was interviewed by Dr. Richard Land, president of the SBC Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, for the denomination's "For Faith and Family" radio broadcast. During that interview, I told Dr. Land that religious conservatives are today the "most energized" they have been since they helped elect Ronald Reagan president in 1980. And I truly believe this to be true. …… ..."

WorldNetDaily 6/24/00 Dr. Jerry Falwell "……Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, apparently disagrees (at least in regard to conservatives speaking out). Mr. Lynn is attempting to silence religious conservatives at the voting booth this fall and has enacted a misinformation campaign designed to thwart the People of Fa