Christian Post: "A Christian youth group in Northern California can now meet freely on school grounds, thanks to a lawsuit filed against the Chico Unified School District in April. Last month, the school district repealed a procedure that had forced the Good News Club—a branch of the national Child Evangelism Fel-lowship—to pay for using school facilities. The District charges higher facilities usage fees to religious groups than to secular groups. When CEF requested to use rooms after school hours for youth gatherings, the District advised the elementary school to charge fees that other youth groups—such as the boys and girl’s scouts—are exempted from. Although the CEF briefly paid the fees, the higher costs eventually forced the Good News Club to stop meeting."

Roderick Conway Morris in IHT: "One of the worst periods of suppression...under the Emperor Diocletian, almost immediately preceded...[t]he Edict of Milan of 313, [which] declared not only general freedom of wor-ship, but mentioned the Christians by name....The prime author of the edict was Constantine, then one of the joint rulers of the Roman empire.... In 330, he inaug-urated a new capital bearing his name on the shores of the Bosporus, and it would remain a bastion of Chris-tianity...for more than 1,100 years....The long-term im-plications for...art of Christianity's official status were enormous, but what was the impact during this early... period? This is expertly examined and illustrated by 'Constantine the Great'...a gathering of more than 250 pieces of sculpture, mosaic, painting, ivories, glass and other objects from numerous European sources.”

AP via ABC News: "The state's $51 billion budget...in-cludes funding for 14,000 children. The state will pay $4,250 for students in kindergarten through eighth grade and $5,000 for high schoolers. Husted's staff was unable to provide a total figure for the funding. Support-ers of school choice have worked to set up and expand programs since 2002, when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Cleveland's program which includes religious schools did not violate the separation of church and state. Voucher measures in seven states failed this year.... In Ohio, however, lawmakers in the Republican-controlled House and Senate expanded [Gov.] Taft's or-iginal proposal that would have provided vouchers to 2,600 students....Only Florida and Wisconsin offer voucher programs similar to Ohio's."

Jay Tolson in USNews: Austrian Cardinal Christoph "Schönborn concludes that 'scientific theories that try to explain away the appearance of design as a result of 'chance and necessity' are not scientific at all, but as John Paul II put it, an abdication of human intelligence.' That may be too harsh a view of the work of scientists who do not share Schönborn's faith and convictions. But it is true that positing the nonexistence of order and design to the universe is no less a matter of faith–a very different faith–than positing such an order and design to the universe. Science, whether it will ever confirm either faith, proceeds by established methods to explain, among other things, the causes of phenomena. And as long as scientists do not ignore the method or fudge the findings, they will continue to do the science that may, or may not, confirm their ultimate beliefs."

Variety.com: "Americans who are stricter about their re-ligious doctrine are actually more likely to see films rated R for violence than those who are less conservative. That's according to a MarketCast study presented at Wednesday's Integrate '05 conference, co-sponsored by Variety. The study, which examined whether political and cultural attitudes affect what movies people watch, found that the habits of Red State fundamentalists aren't that different from Blue State types. The analysis was based on a survey of 1,000 Americans and presented by Mar-ketCast president Joseph Helfgot, vice president and general manager Henry Shapiro and managing director Karen Hermelin. 'Our data has shown that most people, even the most religious, are quite satisfied with their moviegoing,' Shapiro said. 'They like what they see.'"

"From what they’ve heard, the Wallners vigorously disa-gree with the central tenets of Love Won Out. 'I think Dr. Dobson is on a campaign to destroy the homosexual community,' Bob Wallner said. Focus on the Family says it is doing everything it can to prove him wrong. It wel-comed the Wallners and other representatives of gay and lesbian rights groups into its conference and did not con-front them. When activists 'come in and hear the speak-ers, they are...very surprised to hear a message of hope and healing and challenge to the church,' Dr. Bill Maier, vice president and psychologist in residence for Focus on the Family, said in an interview ahead of the conference. But opinions are frequently dogmatic. Mike Haley...a speaker at the conference, said some speakers had got-ten death threats, a not-uncommon occurrence...."  

Gene Edward Veith in World: "After interviewing over 3,000 teenagers, the social scientists summed up their beliefs: (1) 'A god exists who created and ordered the world and watches over human life on earth.' (2) 'God wants people to be good, nice, and fair to each other, as taught in the Bible and by most world religions.' (3) 'The central goal of life is to be happy and to feel good....' (4) 'God does not need to be particularly involved in one's life except when needed to resolve a problem.' (5) 'Good people go to heaven when they die.' Even these secular researchers recognized that this creed is a far cry from Christianity, with no place for sin, judgment, salvation, or Christ. Instead, most teenagers believe in a combination of works righteousness...psychological well-being, and a non-interfering god....'Moralistic Therapeutic Deism.'”

Agape Press: "Dr. James Dobson of Focus on the Family said by ruling against the display of the Ten Commandments in Kentucky courtrooms—but, in a separate decision, stating a granite monument in Texas depicting the Decalogue is constitutional—the Supreme Court 'tore a hole through the First Amendment.' ...'This was no affirmation of the right of religious expression,' he said in reference to the Texas ruling. He...feels that ruling essentially stated: 'It's okay to keep a Ten Com-mandments monument on state-owned land, so long as you don't consider what's written on the state tablets to be anything more than empty words from a bygone era
....' Dr. D. James Kennedy of Coral Ridge Ministries in Florida says...'This is not law, this is the consequence of the Court's abandonment of the...Constitution.'"

RNS via Lakeland Ledger: "when UCC delegates in Atlanta voted on Independence Day to become the first mainline Protestant church to support civil marriage for gay couples, some might have wondered...Are other mainline churches likely to follow the UCC's indepen-dent example? The answer, for a number of reasons, is probably not. Demographics: For one, the UCC rank-and-file tend to be more liberal than U.S. Christianity in general. The 'marriage equality' resolution at the UCC's General Synod meeting passed overwhelmingly, while most other churches are sharply divided, if not more conservative, on gay issues.... Decentralization: The beauty—and frustration—of the UCC is that any state-ment made by the national church is simply advisory."  

Christianity Today: "Normally, the G8 summit elicits about as much evangelical interest as moss growing on trees. But this year evangelicals are joining the ranks of activists at the annual gathering.... Their shared goal is to change government policies to save lives in Africa. A broad coalition of religious and political leaders has en-dorsed: - Doubling financial aid to the world's poorest countries. - Debt cancellation for the poorest nations. - Reform of trade laws so poor nations are not shut out of global markets. Activists hope these steps will result in new growth in African economies and that in turn will translate into fewer deaths from malaria, HIV/AIDS, and starvation. ONE, the campaign 'to make poverty history' ...includes leading evangelical groups like World Vision, Bread for the World, and World Concern."

David Yount via Scripps Howard: "The problem (if it is a problem) is confined to the Protestant denomina-tions that have been part of American history and cul-ture since colonial times - Episcopalians, Lutherans, Methodists, and Presbyterians notable among them. Social commentators whom I respect suggest that their steady decline in membership signals the demise of denominational Christianity. I disagree. There are ex-planations for the shrinkage....The sharp growth in churchgoing following World War II may simply have been a blip in religious enthusiasm, with current num-bers being more sustainable....The mainline denomin-ations' attempts to accommodate the social upheaval of the 1960s undoubtedly cost them some members..."

USAToday: "The potential for permanent fan alienation has made religion, like politics, long a taboo topic for most celebrities to publicly schmooze about. Yet with early success—War of the Worlds has taken in $113.3 million in North America since its debut Wednesday—it looks as if...moviegoers are shrugging off his rants on religion, psychiatry, and postpartum depression as well as his couch-hopping for his new fiancée, Katie Holmes. Given Hollywood's 19-week box-office losing streak, observers note that as long as stars' films are hits, they might now feel emboldened to speak out about anything that smacks of controversy.... 'What counts is box-office success. The religion of Hollywood is money,' says Mar-tin Kaplan, associate dean at the University of Southern California's Annenberg School for Communication."

Reuters via ABC News: "The Vatican on Thursday said too many Roman Catholics were not taking their religion seriously and that those faithful who receive communion and still support abortion rights were be-having scandalously. In an 88-page working document for a synod of bishops to be held in October, the Vati-can also decried dwindling attendance at Sunday Mass and reaffirmed a rule that Catholics who divorce and re-marry outside the Church cannot take communion.... 'Some receive communion while denying the teachings of the Church or publicly supporting immoral choices in life, such as abortion, without thinking that they are committing an act of grave personal dishonesty and causing scandal,' it said."

AP via MSNBC: "A media watchdog group on Friday denounced the maker of the hugely popular video game 'Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas' over graphic sexual content that allegedly exists in the game and can be unlocked with an Internet download. The game's plot is already objectionable to many people: Its main charac-ter carjacks for fun and profit and picks up women along the way. But some say its content becomes sexually explicit if players download and install a modification to the game—one of many so-called 'mods' available on Web sites maintained by video game enthusiasts....The mod's author...told The Associated Press on Friday that his code merely unlocks content already included in the code of each off-the-shelf game. 'If Rockstar Games denies that, then they're lying'" he wrote via email.

A Christmas gift from Xnmp—The "gift" is a tip. Add the Google toolbar to your computer's Internet Explorer browser. It zaps popup ads on news websites, which is great, but even better, its search option to "search this site" is awesome. It's virtually an index of any site, including this one. Try it—go to the web address below, click "download," and it automatically installs itself if your computer is WIndows XP. And Merry Christmas!
(This endorsement was not paid or solicited.) — webmaster

http://toolbar.google.com/