Newsmax: "The same San Francisco federal judge who just overturned a federal law banning partial-birth abor-tions also approved of Muslim prayer in schools when federal rulings ban all other denominational prayers and activities. In a December 2003 decision, U.S. District Judge Phyllis Hamilton decided that it was lawful for a California middle school teacher to require students to recite Muslim prayers, get down on their knees and role-play as Muslim adherents. As part of the class students were told to recite: "In the name of Allah, the Compas-sionate, the Merciful. Praise be to Allah, Lord of Crea-tion, The Compassionate, the Merciful, King of Judgment -day! You alone we worship....'"

Washington Times: ""Our platform is an acknow-ledgment that most of our nation's Founding Fathers had a deep faith in God. We believe that people of faith should be welcomed in the political process today as they were 200 years ago," [State Party Chairwoman Tina J.]. Benkiser said. She said the state party's plat-form is virtually identical to the one it has had for the past decade. Christians make up 82 percent of the U.S. population, Jews 1 percent and Muslims less than 1 percent, with athe-ists, agnostic and those citing no preference making up 13 percent, according to a Pew Research Council survey...."

Reuters: "'If [network executives are] looking for an untapped market, this is it,' [Jana Riess] said, noting polls that show most Americans profess a belief in God and nearly half counting themselves as born-again or evangelical Christians. 'Americans are a very religious people, but our popular culture expressions have not always reflected that.... Those same people who read the "Left Behind" books would also like to see films and television shows that reflect their values and their spiritual principals.' ....Spirituality in series television also runs counter to decades of prime-time orthodoxy, which has generally consigned overtly religious themes to holiday specials."

1984 speech: "George Washington referred to religion's
...place in the heart of our nation...in his Farewell Add-ress in 1796. ...By 1796 the French Revolution had known the Reign of Terror. And Washington [doubted] that there could be a wise policy without a firm moral and religious foundation. He said, 'Of all the disposi-tions and habits which lead to political prosperity, reli-gion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man (call himself a patriot) who (would) la-bour to subvert these...props of the duties of men and citizens...let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion.'"

theBakersfieldchannel: "'Our Christian republic has declined into a pagan democracy,' said [Christian Exodus president] Cory Burnell. 'There are some issues people just can't take anymore, and [same-sex marriage] might finally wake up the complacent Christians.' Although the leadership of Christian Exodus is keeping a low profile for now, potential members are lighting up the group's Web site message board. And as might be expected, opinions on the future of the group and their influence on South Carolina span a wide range of expectations. Particularly when it comes to discussing those who may not agree with their philosophy."

San Francisco Chronicle: "The Rev. Richard Cizik spends a lot of time apologizing for what better-known evangelicals say about Islam. Tonight, for example, he'll be representing the National Association of Evangelicals at an event at the Moroccan Embassy in Washington, D.C., where he'll no doubt be asked about comments such as one by the Rev. Franklin Graham, Billy Graham's son and heir apparent, calling Islam 'a very evil and wicked religion.' Cizik, the vice president for governmental affairs for the evangelical group, says conservative Protestants should stifle the rhetoric and stop demonizing Muslims."  

SBC-sponsored web page: "Every candidate has his or her own set of values and positions on important issues. Shouldn't you vote for the candidates who believe like you do when it comes to your values and the important issues of our day? Think about it. Where a candidate stands on the issues is far more important than the party he or she belongs to and all the cam-paign promises and slogans. So here's the question: Does the candidate you plan to vote for share your values? Remember, you will vote someone’s values. Whose values will you vote? Yours or someone else's? How you vote really does matter. In fact, how you vote today impacts tomorrow."

Washington Times: "'In fact, Reagan saved a Republican Party that was falling apart and actually transformed it into a party of ideas, with a vision of what America should look like in the future,' [Bob] Heckman [former Reagan political action committee organizer] said. At the same time, [media consultant Tom] Edmonds says, it is a mistake to typecast Mr. Reagan. 'Reagan didn't fall into a stereotypical cate-gory,' Mr. Edmonds said. "Most Reagan positions were conservative but he didn't just embrace them with a knee jerk. He had his own positions on all the issues of the day.'" 

USAToday: "...University of Virginia sociologist W. Bradford Wilcox, who conducted the study...analyzed data from three large surveys conducted several times from 1972 to 1999 that examined behaviors and atti-tudes toward family and gender among different reli-gious groups, including Catholics and Protestant Christian denominations, Jews, Muslims and others. The results point to greater family involvement and less domestic violence among churchgoing Protes-tants, especially evangelicals, which he says include Southern Baptists, Assemblies of God, and nonde-nominational evangelical churches."  

Albert Mohler on Crosswalk: "In his greeting to the participants, [sponsor] John Podesta warned, 'Of course, in the last 20 years we've seen the emergence of religious leaders who tried to dictate legislation, public policy from their particular set of religious beliefs. It's been a time when the religious leaders who attracted the widest attention were, quite frankly, often those with the narrowest minds.' Now, he seemed to argue, it's high time for broad-minded liberals to try to dictate legislation and public policy from 'their parti-cular set of religious beliefs.' The problem, of course, is those very beliefs. What in the world do these people believe?"

Washington Times: "The Rev. Robert Drinan, a Jesuit priest who served in Congress during the 1970s, says he has advised the campaign to clamp down on religious rhetoric and 'keep cool on the Communion thing' after four Catholic bishops either barred Mr. Kerry by name from taking Communion in their dio-ceses or said prochoice Catholics should be denied the sacrament. ...[A] campaign source also said for-mer Clinton aides...have tutored campaign operatives on more aggressively using religion to appeal to voters. 'Why the campaign is not listening to any of them, I don't know,' the source said. 'Conservatives are about 20 years ahead of us on this stuff.'"

AP via ABCNews: "While Fox News' Bill O'Reilly says he's not necessarily conservative on many issues, his audience is. The Pew survey found 72 percent of 'The O'Reilly Factor" viewers described themselves as con-servative, and 4 percent said they were liberal. Mean-while, 22 percent of PBS' 'NewsHour' viewers describe themselves as conservative, and 71 percent say they are moderate or liberal, Pew said. Due largely to Fox, cable news continues to grow as a favored outlet for news while the broadcast networks' ratings are flat. The Inter-net is also growing as a news source, and bringing in more older and minority computer users, too, Pew said.'"  

By CNN staffer Todd Leopold: "What God is not—
or what Walsch thinks of as 'yesterday's God'—is a bearded, demanding father figure on a throne. Walsch, an ingratiating—if intense—man who says he welcomes skepticism, knows that's a hard image to get past, but he says getting past it is necessary for humanity's survival. 'Humanity can evolve in one of two ways,' says Walsch. 'We can be spectators, tsk-tsking to annihilation. Or we can engage in a process in which we evolve ... aware of who we are and the role we are playing.'"

Toledo Blade: "Researchers, scholars, and anyone who likes to sort through numbers will find plenty of helpful and fascinating statistics about the world's religions on the authoritative Web site www.adher-ents.com. The site, not affiliated with any religious group, keeps track of data about the adherents to 42,667 religious groups around the world, with many of the statistics broken down by region and time period. If you're wondering, for example, how many members of the Christian and Missionary Alliance live in Ohio, the number is 25,334. Anyone searching for such obscure facts as how many Methodists lived in Ohio in 1816 will find that there were 18,150...."

Telegraph, UK: "According to the most recent poll, nearly half of all Americans, 48 per cent, believe in the Book of Genesis's version of our origins. The Creation-ists fervently hope that number may even be rising. Evolution is 'the dumbest and most dangerous idea in the history of humanity', said Kent Hovind, a vocal enthusiast for the cause.... Explaining his Creationist creed, he said: 'We think dinosaurs were part of the normal Creation and were just big lizards. Noah took some of them on the Ark, probably babies, when the floods came....Throughout history, there are stories of people killing the animals that survived but they called them dragons.'"

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