Washington Times: "Nationwide, public school teachers are almost twice as likely as other parents to choose private schools for their own children, the study by the Thomas B. Fordham Institute found. More than 1 in 5 public school teachers said their children attend private schools. In Washington (28 percent), Baltimore (35 percent) and 16 other major cities, the figure is more than 1 in 4. In some cities, nearly half of the children of public school teachers have abandoned public schools. ...Public school teachers told the Fordham Institute's surveyors that private and religious schools impose greater discipline, achieve higher academic achievement and offer overall a better atmosphere."

Associated Press via USAToday: New Zealand's parliament has been debating proposed legislation that would grant 'civil union' status to couples — both same-sex and heterosexual — who live together, giving them many of the same rights as married couples. Conservative critics have labeled it the 'Gay Marriage Bill,' although it doesn't formally recognize gay marriages and differentiates between civil unions and marriage. 'Spouses rightly deserve specific and categorical legal recognition by the state,' the pope said, 'while any attempt to equate marriage with other forms of cohabitation violates its unique role in God's plan for humanity.'"

"In fundamental terms, in other words, the president’s faith divides the world into two camps: good and evil. There is no gray. There is only right and wrong. In Plan of Attack, his examination of the Bush administra-tion’s buildup to the war in Iraq, Bob Woodward por-trays Bush as unwavering in his belief that his cause was righteous, not merely right. 'I haven’t suffered any doubt,' Bush said in an interview with Woodward. The president’s religious conviction is the defining measure of his life, and of his administration. Lest there be any doubt, Bush said in that book: 'I was praying for strength to do the Lord’s will.... I pray that I will be as good a messenger of His will as possible.'"

Matt Abbott: Catholics For Free Choice news release: “evidence shows that [Catholic Answers' voter's] guide targets at least one specific candidate: Democratic presidential nominee Sen. John Kerry. Karl Keating's E-Letter of April 13, states Kerry ‘flunks the test given in Catholic Answers' Voter's Guide for Serious Catholics: He is wrong on all five 'non-negotiable' issues listed there.’ This egregious violation of US tax laws, which prohibit charitable organizations from endorsing or op-posing candidates for public office, is the latest exam-ple of a vicious campaign by various tax-exempt organi-zations opposed to abortion rights and, by extension, candidates who support these rights.'"

AP via Macon Telegraph: "Now, for those seeking money to attend college, it no longer hurts to be gay, lesbian or transgender. An increasing number of charities, professional groups and university campuses offer scholarships specifically for students whose sex-uality doesn't fit the coed mold. More than 50 such scholarships are available nationwide—from the $1,000 scholarships that Zami, an advocacy group in Atlanta, is giving to 21 black lesbians and gays this year, the $2,000 awards the United Church of Christ distri-buted to gay seminarians, and the $3,000 fellow-ships George Washington University administers so gays and lesbians can spend a semester studying politics in the nation's capital."

Mark Stricherz: "Recently American Catholic bishops
...have publicly crossed swords with pro-choice Cath-olic [politicians like] Kerry, the first Catholic presiden-tial nominee since John F. Kennedy.... And Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, head of the Catholic Church's Con-gregation for the Doctrine of the Faith...this summer advised American bishops to refuse Communion to all pro-choice Catholic office-holders. But Kerry continues to receive Communion at Boston's Paulist Center, which is quasi-independent of the local hierarchy.... Father John Ardis, the center's director, prayed at the opening and closing of the Democratic National Con-vention in Boston, signaling Kerry's shaky ties to the Catholic hierarchy."  

BBC News: "Nancy Coulter-Parker, a young mother in Boulder, Colorado, said she was not anti-religious, but did not want policy made on the basis of faith. She cited a range of issues where she felt religion had intruded improperly into the political sphere, including abortion, stem cell research, education, and the Iraq war. 'Everyone is entitled to have their belief and I am completely supportive of that but I don't believe it has a place in the US in the way the country is run or deci-sions are made,' she said....Two-thirds of Americans say churches should not endorse political candidates, but a slim majority say they should express views on political issues."

David Gates, Newsweek: "Critics may complain that the book doesn't include the back pages they want most: his famous 1966 motorcycle accident gets a single sentence, and there's nothing about his 1977 divorce, his 1978 conversion to evangelical Christianity or the origin and the making of such masterworks as 'Blood on the Tracks' (1975), 'Slow Train Coming'
(1979), 'Infidels' (1983) or 'Time Out of Mind.'... [Ob-session with Dylan] went past ordinary adulation. At its worst, in the late 1960s and early '70s, Dylan experienced a disorienting, terrifying and downright infuriating combination of stalking and deification. As he writes...'It would have driven anybody mad.'" 

San Diego Channel: "The federal suit said sopho-more Chase Harper, 16, was suspended for express-ing his 'sincerely held religious beliefs,' 10News reported. Harper wore the shirt during and after the April 21 'Day of Silence,' a national event held on high school and college campuses to protest discrimination against gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender students. The T-shirt had the words, 'I Will Not Accept What God Has Condemned' hand-written on the front and 'Homosexuality is Shameful' on the back. When Harper wore a similar shirt the next day, a teacher told him he was violating the school dress code and must remove the shirt or go to the office."

Haaretz: "With the help of Jewish actors and come-dians like Richard Belzer, Sarah Silverman and David Cross, Soloway and her codirector, Maggie Rowe, are parodying the phenomenon, using the actual scripts provided in Hell House how-to kits created by Pastor Keenan Roberts of the Destiny Church of the Assem-blies of God, located in Broomfield, Colo. In using evangelicals' own words to lampoon the evangelical Christians, Soloway and Rowe hope to give a much-needed kick in the rear to a phenomenon they see as narrow-minded and moralistic."

Alan Cooperman: "Bush [has] not actually said that abortion is tantamount to murder. Nor, according to aides, has he ever said that all abortions should be illegal. When asked by reporters during the 2000 pres-idential campaign and again last fall whether abortion should be banned, Bush said the nation was not ready for that step, without indicating his position. George W. Bush is among the most openly religious presi-dents in U.S. history. A daily Bible reader, he often talks about how Jesus changed his heart. He has spoken...of hearing God's call to run for the presidency and of praying for God's help since.... But despite the centrality of Bush's faith to his presidency, he has revealed only the barest outline of his beliefs...."  

Scotsman: "...the [Catholic] church has called for a comprehensive review of what children are being taught in the classroom about sex. Books and videos on rec-ommended teaching lists for primary schools show images of sexual organs and couples having sex, fea-ture videos of real childbirth, and include such topics as the clitoris. The decisions on which of these teaching materials to use is up to individual headteachers. John Deighan, the Church’s parliamentary officer, branded some of the material pornographic and said the content and context of most of it was unsuitable for the age group for which it was intended, lacking in any social or moral context, and unnecessary for the classroom."

David Neff, Christianity Today: "'The Question of God' is 'think TV.' It is also an excellent opportunity for church groups to watch and then discuss. (A discus-sion guide can be downloaded from the program's website.) Better yet, it is an opportunity for Christians to gather and talk (rather than argue) with the poly-morphously spiritual, the agnostic, and the atheistic."
Charles W. Colson, Breakpoint: "I encourage you: Watch "The Question of God" on PBS and get your friends and neighbors to do the same thing. And then start a discussion. Then you should write or e-mail PBS and thank them for putting the program on. There's a good chance they will rerun a special like this, and the more people who see it the better."

Paul Kengor in SF Chronicle: "I hear the question so often that I'm tired of responding to it: 'What about Bush's fundamentalism?' When I'm not providing an answer, I'm reading statements to that effect, like the recent remark from former Vice President Al Gore... who...described the current president's faith as 'the American version of the same fundamentalist impulse that we see in Saudi Arabia,' a nation where people of minority faiths are executed. This assessment of Bush comes mainly from foes on the political left, and from secularists. It does not come from conservatives and certainly not from, of all people, Christian fundamenta-lists. Fundamentalists find the claim laughable."

Bill Tammeus via KRT Wire, Fort Wayne News-Sentinel: "Almost certainly all of us have used inade-quate and misleading labels for people - conservative, evangelical, liberal, reactionary and on and on. We need to stop. We'd be much better off if everyone— including me—would avoid using such broad labels whenever possible....Radio talk-show hosts make a living tossing around labels and pretending they mean something. Oh, sometimes labels can help define broad categories in useful ways, but, like all words, they are mainly metaphor. And because they usually are too abstract and too broad, their primary use is not to describe but to demonize."

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