Daily Review Online: "Such is the new life of G.P. Taylor, 46, a motorbiking Anglican vicar, former punk rocker, police officer and social worker—and the next J.K. Rowling, as some have dubbed him. "Hotter Than Potter," screamed headlines in Britain last year. The phrase, a publicist's dream, referred to Shadowmancer, Taylor's first book, a dark, 18th-century-era fantasy novel for ages 12 and older featuring boggles, witches, smugglers, heroic teens and an evil vicar's plot to over-throw the Almighty, no less. Since its publication, Tay-lor has written a second faith-based novel, Wormwood, just out in hardback, and has sold the rights for future books to publishers on both sides of the Atlantic. No longer reliant on his modest church stipend...."

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."

Lee Strobel in Beliefnet: "The scientific materialism that is at the root of evolutionary theory is a worldview that has broad and sweeping implications. If evolution-ary theory is true, there are five inescapable conclu-sions. ...one, there is no evidence for God.... two, there is no life after death....three, there is no absolute found-ation for right and wrong....four, there is no ultimate meaning for life. And...five, people don’t really have free will. That’s why this is a very spirited battle between two world views. It comes down to the issue...should science limit itself only to naturalistic processes?...if it does, Darwinism wins by default. Or, should science open itself to going wherever the evidence points, even if it points in the direction of an intelligent designer?"

BigNews-Network.com: "Scaremare, produced by Liberty students for 33 years, is part haunted house and part sermon that graphically depicts the religious college's views concerning abortion, homosexuality, death by terrorist attack and cancer—all aimed at scar-ing nonbelievers, reported the Washington Post Satur-day. Visitors are led around the grounds of a building where bodies spill out of the wreckage of a grisly car crash, a young woman is laid to rest and a lashed and bloody Jesus Christ hangs on a cross. The visitors are then brought to white tents, where students [like] Steve Cashman explain the meaning of it all. Part of life is death, Cashman told the Washington Post. It's an eternal death. It's hell. But the gift of God is life."

UPI, Washington Times: "Britain's first national guidelines on religious education call for atheism and minority faiths like Baha'i and Shintoism to be taught alongside Christianity. Announced Thursday by Charles Clarke, the education secretary, the guide-lines also try to counter fears that Christianity has been sidelined in religious education as merely an-other faith taught as part of a wider study of beliefs, the Independent reported Friday. For example, the new framework calls for children to study Christianity through their school careers. The other five major religions—Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism and Sikhism—should all be studied by pupils by age 14, according to the new guidelines."  

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 NBC13.com: "Gibson appeared on ABC's 'Good Morning America' Thursday and said he should not have to pay taxes to help fund the cloning of human embryos. Gibson is Catholic and directed
The Passion of the Christ, the controversial movie that chronicles the last hours of the life of Jesus Christ. He said he was initially ecstatic when he first heard about Prop 71, but later changed his mind when he learned about what he called an 'unethical' research method. Gibson said he called California Gov. Arnold Schwar-zenegger Wednesday night to talk about the issue and that the governor told him he had to make a speech and would call him back. 'Well, Arnold, I'm
still waiting for your call,' he said." 

A forum of 71 evangelical pastors and college and seminary educators, via 'Christian Link': "Many Americans seek guidance from the Bible for important issues of life, while we recognize that many others do not. With thankfulness for the freedom of all Americans to believe whatever they think best regard-ing matters of religion and ethics, we offer this state-ment of our personal understanding of the teachings of the Bible for the thoughtful consideration of all who are interested in how the Bible might speak to ethical issues in the current election." Their "open letter" speaks to seven ethical issues they believe are critical in the current United States presidential election campaign.

San Mateo, CA., Daily Journal: "A Christian student group sued Hastings College of the Law in federal court in San Francisco Friday, accusing the school of viola-ting its free speech rights by imposing a nondiscrimina-tion policy. The San Francisco-based law school, which is part of the University of California, bars registered student groups from discriminating on the basis of reli-gion or sexual orientation. The Hastings chapter of the Christian Legal Society, a nationwide group headquar-tered in Virginia, says...that policy conflicts with its orthodox Christian beliefs. The chapter...says that all students are welcome to its meetings, but that its mem-bers and officers must adhere to orthodox Christian beliefs and may not engage in homosexual conduct."

The Omaha Channel: "Jennings said that everyone —even journalists—have points of view through which they filter their perception of the news. It could be race, sex or income. But, he said, reporters are ideally trained to be as objective as possible. 'And when we don't think we can be fully objective, to be fair,' the anchorman said. Does the public think network news is fair? There are a number of opinion polls that show news consumers feel that the media does have a slant. Jennings maintains those polls may be driven by groups with an agenda. 'There's a whole industry of conservatives saying, "Ah, it's those damn liberals," and a whole group of liberals saying, "It's all those damn conservatives,"' Jennings said."

San Francisco Chronicle: "Tom Allio, the director of social action for the Catholic Diocese of Cleveland, was involved in the antipoverty bus tour several weeks ago, and he would seem to have an easy sell, given that Cleveland has the highest poverty rate of any big city in the country and a punishing unemployment rate.... Not so. For at least some on the religious right, antipoverty efforts are seen as a diversion from the more urgent tasks of preventing same-sex marriages and abortions. 'I think we're clearly playing catch-up,' said Allio. 'The right-wing groups are so well funded and mobilized. But I don't take the position it's too little too late. The P-word (poverty) has barely been mentioned in this cam-paign, and I think we have to get it on the agenda.'"

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."

Report to U.S. Senate Subcommittee on the Constitution: "We do not agree with the few in the hearing who suggested that hostility to religious free-dom is not an issue in this country. Hostility to religi-ous expression is real and much too frequent, to an extent that would be shocking to most Americans. Exhibit A (attached) is a long list of cases, over 50 pages...reflecting religious hostility across America. These cases just scratch the surface of what is hap-pening across the country. ...the American Civil Liber-ties Union, People for the American way, and Amer-icans United for Separation of Church and State con-stantly batt[le] against expression of a relitious view-point in the public square."

Jos. Loconte, Philadelphia Inquirer via Heritage Foundation: "Politicians who invoke religion are always in for a rough ride. In his debates with Stephen Douglas over slavery, Abraham Lincoln was pilloried for his 'proneness for quoting Scripture.' Yet today a Methodist president who admits he prays for God's guidance is accused of 'faith-based extremism' not unlike that of Osama bin Laden. Columnist Bruce Bartlett, quoted in this week's New York Times Magazine, claims that George W. Bush understands the dark vision of Islamic terrorists 'because he's just like them.' Bush-bashing, it seems, has morphed into antireligious bigotry. It's doubtful any occupant of the White House has been so vilified for his attachment to traditional Christianity."

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