Zenit, from Rome: "Matthew Parris, writing in the July 23 issue of the Spectator magazine...says the... divi-sions between religions, such as whether or not they instruct followers to kill innocent people, is of little importance. For Muriel Gray, writing in the Scottish newspaper Sunday Herald, 'The cause of all this misery, mayhem, violence, terror and ignorance is of course religion itself.' Gray lumped together extremist Islam with 'fundamentalist Christian insanity' and described all religion as 'Dark Ages nonsense.' 'For the government of a secular country such as ours to treat religion as if it had real merit instead of re-garding it as a ridiculous anachronism, which education, wisdom and experience can overcome in time, is one of the most depressing developments of the 21st century.'"

Albert Mohler in Crosswalk: "For at least half a cen-tury, researchers have been observing massive shifts in Western cultures. The increasingly secular shape of European civilization has been evident for some time.... When Brian Kenny reported, 'I don't go to church, and I don't know one person who does,' he understood that something had changed. 'Fifteen years ago, I didn't know one person who didn't,' he reflected. The statistics documenting European secularization are now impossi-ble to ignore. Ireland, still one of the least secular na-tions in Western Europe, has seen church attendance fall by at least 25 percent over the last three decades. Ireland is predominantly Roman Catholic...but...'Not one priest will be ordained this year in Dublin.' On the Prot-estant side, the picture is not much better....Throughout the...continent, Islam is the only religion growing....."

Nicholas J. Xenakis in NRO: "if read closely, Tocque-ville doesn't deny the possibility of an Islamic democra-tic society, he just raises questions about its longevity and believes that Christianity is better suited to demo-cracy. One has to wonder whether Tocqueville could have dreamed of the current state of affairs in the Middle East. And the question lingers of whether his theories still apply in a framework of democracy promotion — something that many recent scholars have argued has a tenuous connection with the Founder's original intentions. Whether an Islamic democratic society is possible and what it might look like depends on what is occurring in Iraq at this very moment. One doesn't have to take Tocqueville's word as gospel. It is quite possible that 'Democracy in Iraq' is just waiting to be written."

AP's Richard Ostling: "The new one-volume, 628-page encyclopedia (Facts on File, $75) is an invaluable re-source for small libraries and history buffs. Protestant-ism is the sort of dizzyingly complex phenomenon that most needs an encyclopedia to make sense of things, yet for years there was none, despite such works cov-ering Catholicism, Judaism and world religions. Amaz-ingly, the new Protestant encyclopedia was written by only one author, the Rev. J. Gordon Melton, America's premier fact-finder and trivia-monger on religions large and small. Melton's California-based Institute for the Study of American Religion continually collects data on new religions that crop up. He profiles them in his En-cyclopedia of American Religions, a...volume with am-ple sects appeal. The latest (Thomson Gale, $305) depicts 2,630 U.S. and Canadian faith groups."

Washington Times: “Nuclear-family households—two married parents and a child—were the most common as recently as 1990, when there were 25 million such households. But by 2000, nuclear-family households fell to second place, both because there were almost a half-million fewer of these type of homes and because the number of single-adult households surged past 27 mil-lion. Married households without children remained the third most common, with 20 million in 1990 and 22 mil-lion in 2000. Mr. Francese, who has studied U.S. demo-graphic trends for 35 years, said single-adult households are continuing to grow and might even hit 34 million by the 2010 census. This is because people are most likely to live alone 'at either end of the life cycle'—in youth or as senior citizens—he said, and baby boomers are just starting to move into their 60s.”

Mark Braham in Newsweekly: "Alexander the Great recognised that the Jews were not like other nations...; their religion was not a culture but the essence of their lives. Ptolemy of Egypt recognised the greatness of Tor-ah and had it translated into Greek (the Septuagint). Jud-aism teaches that Gentile nations that observe the seven laws given to Noah will be blessed, hence the dominance of European civilisation based on Judeo-Christian values and the threats posed to their survival by the challenge to such values, hence AIDS and the breakdown of healthy family. The Seven Noahide Laws prohibit: (1) idolatry, (2) blasphemy and cursing the name of G-d, (3) murder, (4) robbery and theft, (5) immorality and forbidden sexual re-lations, (6) removing and eating the limb of a live animal, and require: (7) the establishment of a justice system and courts of law to enforce the other six laws."  

Marlboro Express: "Benedict used general principles to press his point...He asked them not to see religion as a 'consumer product' where people choose only what they want...and disregard rules that are sometimes difficult to observe. 'Religion constructed on a "do-it-yourself" basis cannot ultimately help us,' he said. 'It may be comfortable but at times of crisis we are left to ourselves....Freedom is not simply about enjoying life in total autonomy, but rather living by the measure of truth and goodness, so that we ourselves can become true and good,' he said. Asked what he felt about the Pope's words warning against pick-and-choose Catholicism, Malte Schubert, a 19-year-old German, said: 'That means no sex, basically, doesn't it? He has to say that. He is the Pope, but I think people should make their own choices.' There were also many in the crowd who agreed with the Pope.”

BP News: "Consider this: 40 million women, children, and men worldwide have HIV/AIDS—with more than 1 million in America! That means, statistically, someone in your church has HIV/AIDS right now. They may not even know it. And more than 50 percent of people with HIV/ AIDS are women and children. ...The Gospels repeated-ly show that Jesus loved, touched and cared for lepers— the diseased outcasts of his day. Today’s 'lepers' are those who have HIV/AIDS. They often hide their condi-tion—even from family—out of fear or shame. I’m convin-ced the HIV/AIDS pandemic is the church’s greatest opportunity to visibly demonstrate God’s love to skep-tics. It is also an incredible opportunity to grow in Christ-like character, to share the Good News with the hurting, and to extend your church’s witness into your community and around the world."

AR religion writer Rachel Zoll: "evangelical leaders say conservative Protestants and Roman Catholics continue to be maligned by some of the most influential institutions in the country—the media, public schools, universities and Hollywood—and they argue that socie-tal demands for tolerance are extended to every group but them. 'There is an attempt by the secularists to take Jesus Christ and to take God out of every aspect of our society,' said the Rev. Franklin Graham... in a recent interview with the Associated Press. This worldview was on display this month at the 'Justice Sunday: II' event, which enlisted Christians in the fight for more sympa-thetic federal judges....William Donohue, head of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, told the crowd he was 'tired of being told' that if faith informs your thinking 'you're a second-class citizen.'"  

Gaylon Parker in Gulflive: "National Review Online re-cently reported that Smithsonian Institute scientist Richard Von Sternberg, holder of two PhDs, has suffer-ed a hostile work environment because he published a piece on intelligent design in a biology journal. NRO said the U.S. Office of Special Counsel, an independent federal agency, told Von Sternberg 'Our...investigation indicates that retaliation [against Sternberg by collea-gues] came...in the form of attempts to change your working conditions.... During the process you were per-sonally investigated and your professional competence was attacked. Misinformation was disseminated throughout the SI [Smithsonian Institution] and outside. ...The allegations against you were later determined false. It's also clear that a hostile work environment was created with the goal of forcing you out of the SI.'"

Christian Post: "The suit claims that UC admissions instituted a policy that would refuse to accept high school science courses and textbooks that challenged Darwinian evolution. Among the courses not approved the suit alleges are 'Christianity's Influence in American History,' 'Christianity and Morality in American Litera-ture' and 'Special Providence: American Government.' Ravi Poorsina, a spokeswoman for the UC said... the university had a right to set requirements for incoming students, according to the LA Times. 'What we're doing is for the benefit of the students,' she said. 'These re-quirements were established...to ensure that students who come here are fully prepared with broad knowledge and the critical thinking skills necessary to succeed.'... The university was also accused of approving courses from...Islam, Judaism, and Buddhism..."

Sher Zieve in American Daily: "one of the New Demo-crat leadership’s constant mantras is: ‘The reason you don’t have enough and will never have enough is be-cause of those nasty conservatives and Republicans! We hate Republicans!’ This mean-spirited rhetoric is to be expected from all true-blue New Democrats.... The chilling bit of ice-up-the-back, surrounding the above comments, is that this is the way most tyrannical lead-erships have historically begun, when they have had no solutions to problems—scapegoating others.... more al-arming is that the New secular Democrats, who already blame Christians for their problems, have moved back in time and are now holding the most famous scapegoat race in history to blame—the Jews. Barely reported by the mainstream press, anti-Semitism is and has been on the rise in the Democrat Party for some time."

A.Mohler in Christian News: "Newsweek sees some-thing else behind TIME's article. The 1966 TIME cover story didn't even consider what was going on be-yond the liberal Protestant denominations. Henry Luce's TIME was, in Newsweek's analysis, obsessed 'with the experience of a handful of the most prestigious Protes-tant denominations.' Accordingly, 'no one looked for God in the Pentecostal churches of East Los Angeles or among the backwoods Baptists of Arkansas.' Furth-ermore, the magazine was not concerned with Mus-lims, Hindus, or Buddhists. Newsweek documents that the 'angst-ridden intellectuals in TIME..never did sweep the nation.' Instead, the years after 1966 saw the nation involved in various waves of religious and spiritual fervor. ...the rise to prominence of Pentecostals and the devel-opment of a vast evangelical network...."

Ted Olsen, Christianity Today weblog: "it's a mis-take to see CBN as Pat Robertson's only source of in-come. CBN was not...part of Freedom Gold Ltd., his mining operation in Liberia....Nor was it part of his oil refinery company. Nor his horseracing interests. Robert-son is willing to fight for these interests. He may call for the assassination of Chavez, but he'll brook no criticism of his business partners, even former Liberian president Charles Taylor....[who] was indicted for war crimes. Na-tional sovereignty isn't the only principle Robertson is willing to compromise for business purposes. While try-ing to negotiate a CBN presence in China, he defended the country's one-child policy....But Robertson's financ-ial holdings are relatively permanent and multinational
....He doesn't need you. He doesn't need your money. He doesn't need America."

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