Wethersfield, CT Post: "The June vote wasn't the Wethersfield church's first on leaving the UCC. In 2003, 60 percent of the members voted to leave, 40 percent to stay. (Two-thirds of the membership must vote to with-draw.) Then [the pastor] voted to stay with the UCC, believing there was still hope. Several incidents changed his mind, one the July 2003 National Synod in Minne-apolis. In a Sept. 18, 2003 letter to General Minister and President of the UCC...and Connecticut Conference Minister... [he] listed concerns about 'cross-dressing clergy on the platform, the transgender choir, and an androgynous liturgical dancer' at the opening service of the Synod. [That service included] the 'first transgender gospel in the world'...."

Albert Mohler on Crosswalk: "We are now witness-ing a massive closing of hearts and minds, fueled by a radical divorce of morality and law. Behind all this stands the totalitarian aspirations of a new secular elite. Senator Kerry has given voice to their argument, and Rocco Buttiglione [rejected as Italy's commission-er on the Civil Liberties Committee of the European Parliament] has felt the crushing weight of their hatred. Think it can't happen where you live? Just ask the members of Southeast Christian Church who wanted to remind their neighbors that marriage is to be a union of one man and one woman marked by honor and cherish-ing love. They can tell you what it is like to be on the receiving end of the secular onslaught."

Biographer George Weigel interviewed by Zenit: "I think the Pope's suffering has underscored the evangelical character of his pontificate. Perhaps the wisest single line ever written about John Paul II was penned on the day of his inauguration by the French journalist, Andre Frossard, who told his Paris news-paper, 'This isn't a pope from Poland; this is a pope from Galilee.' The world is now witnessing this 'pope from Galilee' leading the Church, not from a throne, but from the way of the cross, from Calvary. By inviting the Church and the world to walk the 'via crucis' with him, Karol Wojtyla continues to preach Jesus Christ to the very end."

CNSNews: “A federal judge [has] ordered the Ann Ar-bor Public School system to pay $102,738 in attorney fees and costs to the Thomas More Law Center, which defended a student who expressed her religious views against homosexuality. During her high school's annual 'Diversity Week' program, Betsy Hansen...was not all-owed to express her belief against homosexuality. Han-sen also complained about a school-sponsored 'Homo-sexuality and Religion' panel, which, she said, was stacked with religious leaders who endorsed her school's pro-homosexual agenda. School officials [call-ed] Hansen's religious objection toward homosexuality a "negative" message [that] would 'water-down' the 'positive'...message they wanted to convey...."

News-Journal: "They aren't 'traditionalists,' as Green calls the old-fashioned faithful in any religion, such as ultra-conservative Catholics like Mel Gibson. And they aren't 'modernists'—the liberals constantly working for change in any religion, such as Catholics pushing to ordain women. They're everybody else—faithful believ-ers seeking spiritual comfort, religious guidance and a supportive community. 'Their religion isn't political,' he says. For example, Green says, 'Most Catholics are just kind of regular Catholics. . . . They take the teach-ings of the church seriously. For them, the church is not about political things at all. It's about living a good life.' ...They love Jesus, try to be good people...[but] don't look to the pulpit for political direction."

Paul Strand, CBN: "Many accuse the Republican Party of being captive to the Religious Right or what some would call the Radical Right....But what the media rarely cover is how much the other side, secular humanism, now dominates the Democratic Party. It is a change that began to show up in 1972. By the time the 1992 Democratic Convention rolled around, the largest religious bloc of delegates was not religious at all. Social scientist Gerald De Maio said they were, '...Secularists, self-identified secularists, defined as atheists, agnostics and those with no religious pref-erence.' ...[De Maio says] secularists have become as important to the Democratic Party today as organized labor is."  

AP via Yahoo News: "Patti Davis, daughter of the late President Ronald Reagan, has filed a lawsuit charging that the Salvation Army canceled her speech planned for one of their events because she supports stem cell re-search. Davis was scheduled through her booking agent
...to speak at a Salvation Army event in Santa Rosa, Calif., on Nov. 19 for a fee of $15,000, said her lawyer, Lawrence Fabian. Fabian said officials at the religious charity recently told his clients they no longer wanted Davis as a speaker, and they would pay neither the $15,000 speaking fee nor the $7,500 cancellation fee called for by the contract... the Salvation Army cited Davis' support for stem cell research and said the sci-ence is against its beliefs.... [A]n attorney for the Salva-tion Army said the lawsuit was 'totally without merit.'"

AP via My Way: "The Supreme Court said Tuesday it will take up the constitutionality of Ten Command-ments displays on government land and buildings, a surprise announcement that puts justices in the middle of a politically sensitive issue. Justices have repeatedly refused to revisit issues raised by their 1980 decision that banned the posting of copies of the Ten Commandments in public school classrooms. In the meantime, lower courts have reached a hodge-podge of conflicting rulings that allow displays in some instances but not in others. The high court will hear appeals early next year involving displays in Kentucky and Texas." 

Reading, Pa., Eagle: "A major challenge for Presi-dent George W. Bush this fall, Newsweek has sug-gested, is to 'bring evangelical Christians to a tent-revival pitch without horrifying suburban seculars.'... David Aikman, author of A Man of Faith, the Spiritual Journey of George W. Bush (Nelson), took care to rebut that idea while participating in a recent panel before religion writers in Washington, D.C. 'The words evan-gelical and born again are a no-no around the White House,' Aikman said. 'Bush is really very ecumenical. He doesn't wear his denominational badge on his sleeve.” (In his acceptance speech, John Kerry, in an obvious dig, proclaimed he doesn't wear his religion on his sleeve.)"

Turks.US: "Perhaps the concept of a 'clash of civil-izations' is an exaggeration, but Muslims do not regard themselves as part of a civilized world consisting of a world of Christians and Jews. It is also a sad fact today's global terrorists are nearly all Muslims. This creates a general assumption that Islam and modernity can never unite because Muslims reject modernity and do not wish to live peacefully alongside people from other religions. Some people believe Islam is far away from modernity because Islam disregards modern science that has provided the soul of modernity. How-ever, if one studies the history of Islam, one can read writings from some thinkers who contradict this."

AP's Gina Holland via Newsday: "The Supreme Court refused Monday to disturb a ruling that forces some California religious organizations to pay for workers' contraceptive health insurance benefits. Jus-tices had been asked to review California's law, which exempts churches but not church-backed institutions like hospitals and charity organizations. Catholic Charities had challenged the law, on grounds that it could not be required to pay for something it viewed as sinful. The state Supreme Court ruled against the group last spring. 'If the state of California can coerce Catholic agencies to pay for contraceptives, it can force them to pay for abortions,' attorney Kevin Baine told justices in an appeal for Catholic Charities.'"  

AP via Fort Wayne.com: "Pope John Paul II exhorted Christians on Friday to display signs of their faith more forcefully, contending the practice neither infringes on separation of church and state nor breeds intolerance. His comments appeared to be a clear reference to raging debates over laws such as France's recent ban on wearing Islamic headscarves, Jewish skull caps or large Christian crosses in schools. ...In a 31-page letter ...the pope kept up his campaign to invigorate the faith of followers. 'May there be more commitment, on the part of Christians, to give witness with more force to the presence of God in the world,' John Paul wrote. 'Let's not be afraid to speak of God and to carry on high the signs of faith.'"

AP via Daily Press: "A federal judge has ruled that Lou-doun County school officials discriminated against some families by removing bricks engraved with crosses from a walkway in front of Potomac Falls High School. The families bought the bricks as part of a fund-raiser for the school's parent group. For $50, parents could buy a brick engraved with their child's name and class year and have it installed as part of a "walk of fame" surround-ing the school's flagpole. For an additional $5, they could add a symbol to the brick. An order form gave parents choices of 24 symbols.... The only religious symbol offered was a cross. In February 2003, Loudoun officials removed six bricks inscribed with crosses after receiving a complaint about the religious icon."

Expatica: "over two thirds of Belgians happily describe themselves as Roman Catholics [but] only one in ten attends church regularly.... According to a report in Le Soir newspaper, church atendance in Bel-gium has fallen off massively since the 1950s when one out of every two Belgians went to mass every Sunday....The study revealed that 65 percent of Belgians describe themselves as Catholics, four percent as Muslims and one percent as Protestants.
The remaining people questioned either said they had no religious faith or looked for spiritual fulfilment either in other religions such as Buddhism or through so called 'new age' activities like yoga, alternative medicine or meditation."

Jay P. Greene, National Review: "Only half of Amer-ica's black and Hispanic students graduate from high school. Gigantic increases in per-pupil spending over many decades haven't raised the rate. Schools have pursued fad after fad—ability tracking, ability detrack-ing, less vocational ed, more vocational ed, multiple-intelligence curricula, etc.—without noticeable suc-cess. On the other hand, some types of structural re-form raise student outcomes. And when it comes to getting more kids all the way through school, one re-form shows real promise: choice. There's already a consensus among high-quality studies that school choice boosts test scores. Now, in a new study...I find that it also keeps kids in school."

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