J. Tolson: "From the ban on the wearing of visible religi-ous symbols in French public schools to the refusal of the EU to include specific mention of Christianity's influ-ence on Europe's distinctive civilization in its first consti-tution, a mountain of anecdotal evidence suggests that an aggressive form of secularism—what the British reli-gion writer Karen Armstrong calls 'secular fundamental-ism'—is afoot in Europe. Numerous analysts suggest that the spreading 'Christianophobia' is tied to a Europe-wide spiritual malaise that is pushing the Continent to-ward broad cultural and economic decline. Others des-cribe a more complicated process, in which—as the last vestiges of established religions are disappearing in various European nations—a new spiritual awakening may be taking place...."

AP via NC Times: “A woman barred from reading the Bible in her son's kindergarten class is suing a subur-ban Philadelphia district, claiming it is infringing on her right to express her religious beliefs—and discriminating against Christians. 'What Wesley has learned in all of this is that the Bible is bad in school, and they don't like it,' Donna Busch said of her 6-year-old son. With the help of the Rutherford Institute, a Christian-oriented civil liberties group based in Charlottesville, Va., Busch, who attends a Baptist church, filed a federal lawsuit May 3 against the Marple Newtown School District. Wesley's teacher had invited Busch to her classroom at Culbert-son Elementary School on Oct. 18 as part of 'Me Week,' in which the class would learn more about a featured student, according to the complaint.”

AP via theeagle.com: "Harold Camping says his Bible studies have revealed that what he calls 'the church age' has ended. He has told his worldwide radio audience that Satan has taken over all churches. For the past two years, Camping has been teaching that God wants people to worship privately in their homes instead—with no leaders, no baptism and no commun-ion. 'The Bible says God is not saving people any long-er in the churches,' Camping said.... 'They’re being sav-ed outside the churches.' Critics call the idea heretical, and say the self-described Bible expert doesn’t know what he’s talking about. Some evangelical Christian leaders complain that his call is hurting their churches. ...Camping, 81, parted ways...with the conservative, evangelical Christian Reformed Church...."

AP via San Diego Union-Tribune: U.S. District Judge Alexander "Williams agreed with two groups that filed a lawsuit claiming the curriculum's discussion of homo-sexuality amounted to preferential treatment for relig-ions that preach tolerance of homosexuality over those that reject it. For example, the curriculum juxtaposes faiths such as Quakers and Unitarians that support full rights for homosexuals with groups such as Baptists, who are painted as 'intolerant and biblically misguided,' the judge wrote in his opinion. 'The court is extremely troubled by the willingness of the defendants to venture, or perhaps more correctly, bound, into the crossroads of controversy where religion, morality and homosex-uality converge," Williams wrote.'"

Town Hall: "In fact, the only large body of Jews with a mission are the Jews with the least Jewish religiosity. Such Jews have been disproportionately involved in secu-lar ideologies such as Marxism, socialism, feminism, en-vironmentalism, gay rights, animal rights and every other ideology of the Left. Why?...1. The original religious im-pulse that started the Jewish people and sustained them for thousands of years has not died among Jews; it has simply been transformed into secular causes. 2. Jews of-ten had terrible experiences under European Christianity and (though less murderous) under Islam, and therefore came to equate secularism with their liberation from op-pression. 3. European nationalism excluded Jewish parti-cipation.... Jews came to fear and loathe nationalism and developed a religious fervor for everything international."

Mark Hall: "If you believe the critics, evangelicals like me are against liberty, equality and the pursuit of fun. Gar-rison Keillor, of 'A Prairie Home Companion' fame, says religious Republicans, mostly evangelicals, are interested in 'dividing and conquering the sweet land I grew up in.'... Evangelicals are not a monolith, nor are the American people. We differ on many things, yet there is broad con-sensus on basic values including: a commitment to religi-ous liberty, helping the poor, the importance of families and the value of life. Moving America's public discourse away from the politics of destruction to a serious conver-sation about the common good won't be easy. It's critical that leaders of both the right and the left resist labels and find areas of common ground. That might not satisfy ex-tremists...but it could lead to public dialogue."  

The State.com: "Dobson, who insists his organization backs only issues—not parties or candidates...says the strong rhetoric and emotions are no surprise at a time when there is fierce debate about the actions of the na-tion’s federal courts, which he describes as a 'liberal stronghold.' 'The federal judiciary more and more is mak-ing the great moral decisions of our time,' Dobson said during a 75-minute interview with The Associated Press. He ticked off rulings involving abortion, the Pledge of Al-legiance and the definition of marriage. 'This Supreme Court has co-opted for itself many of the issues that the American people ought to be making through their elec-ted representatives,' he said. 'The decisions that are coming down from the Supreme Court have profound implications for the family and...morality.”

"Spanish Roman Catholic Bishops on Saturday urged Spaniards to disobey a new law legalizing same-sex marriage and to be conscientious objectors. Benedict said on Saturday that the pope 'must not proclaim his own ideas, but ever link himself and the Church to obedience to the word of God, when faced with all at-tempts of adaptation or of watering down.....' Jesuit officials in Rome and the United States...said some American bishops had contacted the Vatican's Congre-gation for the Doctrine of the Faith about articles in America over the years that had presented both sides of controversies over sensitive church issues. The Vatican has had a sometimes tense relationship with the Jesuits, some of whose members in the past have questioned papal pronouncements....”

Brent Bozell in Sacramento Union: "The riots caus-ed by Newsweek’s story claiming American interrogat-ors were flushing the Koran caused many Americans to be amazed by the extreme reaction in the Islamic world. Ken Woodward, the long-time religion writer of News-week, tried to explain to Christians just how offensive Koran-flushing is to Muslims: 'Recitation of the Koran is for Muslims much like what receiving the Eucharist is for Catholics—a very intimate ingestion of the divine itself.' There’s a certain irony here. If you wanted to see the Eucharist in the toilet, you needed only to watch the NBC sitcom 'Committed' in February, when NBC played for laughs the idea that two main characters thought they accidentally dropped a communion wafer in a bar toilet."  

Washington Times: "’The conservative movement is in large part a reaction to the social revolution that had been imposed on this country from above, without the consent of the people, by the Supreme Court. Frankly, you would not have a cultural war in this country if the Supreme Court had said, "Look, free speech is one thing, but pornography is not covered by the First Amendment."' If the justices ‘had stayed away from forced busing, if they had let the states decide abortion and gay rights, you would not have had the cultural war —and probably not have had the victories that the Re-publican Party had in the 1970s and '80s.’ Mr. Buchan-an declares war on a faction of the movement in his latest book: Where the Right Went Wrong...."

IHT: "What has changed is the class status of evan-gelicals. In 1929, the theologian Richard Niebuhr des-cribed born-again Christianity as the 'religion of the disinherited.' But over the past 40 years, evangelicals have pulled steadily closer in income and education to mainline Protestants in the historically affluent estab-lishment denominations. In the process, they have over-turned the old social pecking order in which Episcopal-ian, for example, was a code word for upper class, and fundamentalist or evangelical was shorthand for lower class. Evangelical Christians are now increasingly likely to be college graduates and in the top income brackets. Evangelical chief executives pray together on monthly conference calls and evangelical investment bankers study the Bible over lunch on Wall Street."

WorldNetDaily: "Fonda explained to New York Post columnist Liz Smith that she's a 'feminist Christian,' dis-tinguished from fundamentalists. "I don't want to offend anyone,' Fonda said. 'But I believe people have different ways of approaching The Word. For me, it's metaphor, written by people a long time after Christ died. And inter-preted by specific groups. I read the gospels that aren't included in the Bible. These make me feel good about calling myself a Christian. What we are seeing today are policymakers who say they're Christians.' Fonda said she sees a 'separation between professed faith and the practice' among politicians in Washington, arguing that budgets, war, poverty and health care are religious issues."

Article 8 Alliance: "(Caution: extremely gross and dis-gusting. We debated posting this in unedited form; we did so because it was given to schoolchildren in a pub-lic school, written with public money. Unfortunately, it's necessary that the public see it.) 'The Little Black Book - Queer in the 21st Century'...was distributed to hund-reds of kids (middle school age and up) at Brookline [MA] High School.... It was written by the Boston-bas-ed AIDS Action Committee, with help with the Mass. Dept. of Public Health and the Boston Public Health Commission. The event that day was designed for chil-dren and their teachers across Massachusetts, organ-ized by the Gay Lesbian and Straight Education Net-work....You must ask: What kind of person would write this? What kind of person would give it to kids?..."

Detroit Free-Press: “One-third of the faculty members have signed a letter of protest that will appear in a half-page ad in the Grand Rapids Press on Saturday, the day Bush is to deliver the commencement address to 900 graduating seniors at Calvin. The ad cost $2,600. ‘As Christians, we are called to be peacemakers and to initiate war only as a last resort,’ the letter says. ‘We believe your administration has launched an unjust and unjustified war in Iraq.’ More than 800 students, faculty and alumni also have signed a letter protesting Bush's visit that will appear Friday as a full-page ad in the Grand Rapids paper. The ad cost more than $9,500.... And about 100 students are expected to adorn their graduation gowns with armbands and buttons bearing the slogan: 'God is not a Republican or Democrat.'”

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