AJC: "A federal judge in Atlanta has kept alive a lawsuit that seeks to have Cobb County remove disclaimers about evolution from textbooks....Jeffrey Selman and five other Cobb parents...sued the [school] system in August 2002 after...stickers were placed in the science books. Their lawsuit contends that the placement of the stickers restricts the teaching of evolution, promotes and requires the teaching of creationism and discriminates against particular religions. The sticker ...says, 'This textbook contains material on evolution ...a theory, not a fact, regarding the origin of living things. This material should be approached with an open mind, studied carefully and critically considered.'"

AP via Baltimore Sun: "Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's Islamic-rooted governing party says it is on a mission: to prove that Islam is compatible with democracy. So, Turkey appears to be an ideal host for a two-day summit that began Tuesday at which political and civil leaders from Muslim countries are addressing the struggle for democracy in the Islamic world. Yet, even within Turkey the idea of combining democracy and Islam is a tense issue. Erdogan's push has been hailed by some in the West who are looking for an example of an overwhelmingly Muslim country that has embraced democracy."

Robert Novak via CNN: "There is hardly a more reso-lute supporter of Israel in Congress than Rep. Henry Hyde [which] is why his March 25 letter to Secretary of State Colin Powell is so important. It is a plea to deflect Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's wall around the Holy Land from its planned position blocking the Scriptural pathway of Jesus Christ. 'I fear that impor-tant religious sites will become museums for commer-cial purposes and will no longer be maintained as places of spiritual worship shared by billions across the world,' Hyde, a prominent Roman Catholic layman, told Powell....That raises the question of whether the Bush administration will confront Israel on this issue."

In JWR: "...Judeo-Christian values distinguish Amer-ica from all other countries. That is why American coins feature these two messages: 'In G-d we trust' and 'Liberty.' Yet...the term is not widely understood. It urgently needs to be because it is under ferocious as-sault, and if we do not understand it, we will be unable to defend it. And if we cannot defend it, America will become as amoral as France, Germany, Russia, et al. First, Judeo-Christian America has differed from Chris-tian countries in Europe in at least two important ways
....the Christians who founded America saw them-selves as heirs to the Hebrew Bible.... And even more importantly, they strongly identified with the Jews."

Gerald Warner in The Scotsman: "How could one persuade a moderate Muslim, from Iraq or anywhere else, who has a deep-seated religious faith, prays at set hours of the day, enjoys a secure family life and lives in a community where these conditions are universal, of the benefits of embracing the western lifestyle? ...It is an historical fact that the sexual mores of ‘liberated’ western women that are promoted in teenage magazines were, in every previously record-ed human society, peculiar to prostitutes. Muslims are keenly aware of that. When we go to war, we tell the rest of the world we are fighting to export our ‘values.’ That is exactly what they are afraid of."

AP via Yahoo News:- "Most Americans oppose gay marriage and many believe homosexuality is 'against God's will,' but otherwise consider themselves tolerant of gays, according to a Los Angeles Times poll. By a margin of 55 to 41 percent, those polled agreed with the statement that 'if gays are allowed to marry, the institution of marriage will be degraded.' About half favored a U.S. constitutional amendment defining marriage as the union between a man and a woman, while 42 percent opposed it.... Other recent surveys have found at least half of Americans oppose gay marriage, but fewer support amending the Constitution to ban it."  

Calgary (Can.) Herald: "Portions of the Bible are in danger of being condemned as hate literature, say religious groups opposed to changes in the Criminal Code to be debated next week... [T]he Canadian Con-ference of Catholic Bishops said that Bill C-250 pro-poses changes that could lead to the church being prosecuted for its teaching that 'sexual conduct be-tween people of the same sex is morally wrong. Parti-cipation in the current public debate on marriage has demonstrated there are individuals who believe that Catholic Church teaching on homosexual behaviour is hatred....this bill as presently drafted could be used in an attempt to silence Church teaching in this....'"

Brown Daily Herald: "Religion and higher education are often considered enemies in the battle for the hearts and minds of America's youth. But a recent study conducted at the UCLA Higher Education Research Institute shows that religion is alive and well on college campuses nationwide. The goal of the study, which is being headed by HERI directors and UCLA professors...is to track the spiritual growth of students during their college years, according to the HERI Web site. ...According to the study, 77 percent of college juniors agreed with the statement that all humans are spiritual beings and 71 percent said they find religion to be personally helpful to them." 

San Francisco Chronicle: "During his years in Scien-tology, [Gerald] Armstrong says he worked as an intel-ligence officer and communications officer and compil-ed documents for a church-sponsored biography of [Scientology founder L. Ron] Hubbard. He says he has been in Scientology's sights since the church filed its 1984 lawsuit in Los Angeles County Superior Court to get control of Hubbard's private papers. Judge Paul Breckenridge Jr., who presided over that case, issued a ruling in which he called Hubbard 'virtually a pathol-ogical liar when it comes to his history, background and achievements.' "  

Zogby: "When separated by religious belief, Israeli Muslims and Jews share their belief in the importance of most personal goals, yet differ on a few. Being well educated is the primary goal of Muslims, and the second most important of Jews, who rank the achieve-ment of economic security as most important. Econo-mic security ranks a close 4th among Muslims. Mus-lims say spending time with family is of second high-est importance to them in Israel, and Jews rank family time as third most important. Beliefs about travel are identical between the two religions, with travel within the country rated as fifth most important, and travel outside the country as seventh most important.'"

Glen Chancy in LewRockwell.com: "Calls for freedom and democracy sound innocent enough to Americans.... However, trying to forcibly implant such notions in a religiously fractious society such as Syria is a recipe for disaster, particularly for the Christians. Under the Assad regime, Christians have enjoyed religious and cultural freedom unparalleled in the Middle East. As critics charge, Syria is indeed a one-party police state totally bereft of political freedoms. However.... A democratic system would bring to power a Sunni-dominated government that would be far less accommodating to Christians, and could usher in a round of genocide unimaginable in scale."

Billings Gazette: "A judge has awarded nearly $150,000 to a Christian man fired by AT&T Broadband for refusing to sign a diversity policy requiring him to 'value' the beliefs of others, including gays. Albert Buonanno, 47, said he loves all people regardless of their lifestyle. 'But I cannot value homosexuality and any different religious beliefs,' Buonanno said Monday, after the ruling was made public. 'I think AT&T should be able to expect certain behavior from people but not force their beliefs on people.' Buonanno was fired in 2001 from his $44,261-a-year job as a dispatcher and quota specialist. He sued, claiming he had been dis-criminated against based on his religious beliefs."

Albert Mohler in Crossroads: "On abortion, [Carter] went back to his position in the 1976 campaign. '....It's not possible in my own concept of Christ to believe that Jesus would favor abortion. But at the same time, I have supported the Supreme Court ruling of our coun-try as the law of the land. And the present arrange-ment, whereby a woman is authorized to have an abor-tion in the first trimester of the pregnancy, or when the pregnancy is caused by rape or incest—these...[I] accept...' That statement is both inaccurate and incon-sistent....the 'present arrangement' on abortion does not limit a woman's right to abortion to the first trimester, or to cases of rape or incest...."

AP via Daily Herald, Chicago: "Elcott had seen the [Passion] movie at an Illinois church with thousands of pastors. He was disturbed by how Jews were depict-ed, but saw that his Christian colleagues were visibly moved. 'I realized, with pain, that I didn't understand the people next to me,' he said. 'For Jews, it's particu-larly frightening. It taps into, "If we don't really know them, what's beneath all this?"' Elcott...became the national head of interreligious affairs for the American Jewish Committee, a leading advocacy group based in New York. The job involves representing the Jewish community to everyone from local pastors to the pope—and it has never been easy."

WorldNewsDaily: "the student, who has requested anonymity, was given a failing grade in obstetrics and gynecology because he refused to perform abortions or to refer patients out for any abortive procedure. Three different appeals to the medical school over the past six months have failed to have the student reinstated. The most recent challenge, said the report, was March 3, when the student appeared before faculty of medicine's highest appeal committee. Friday, the student learned his appeal had been turned down....a family friend handling media calls, said the student has always maintained high grades and high approval ratings from clinical supervisors...."

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