OUR COLUMNISTS Christian Rockers -- Here's a Song About Education You Ought to Sing Commentary by Matt Friedeman How about this for a contemporary Christian rock song: "Give public schools what they need. In the name of heaven, choice!" Add a screaming lead with a solid bass line, and you'll have a winner. To Know Love When We See Love (Part 1) Commentary by Jane Jimenez Love American Style is still a television favorite. And the search for love drives nearly every television talk show from Phil to Montel to Oprah. With so many people looking for love, why is it so hard to find? Generous to a Fault Commentary by Brad Locke United Way TV spots show NFL players interacting with children; NBA players are shown reading to a class; baseball players are shown giving kids batting tips. But why is it necessary others know the giver's identity? What does that add to the gift? The Church Joins the World -- and Almost No One Notices Commentary by David Sisler In the spirit of the season, churches all over our nation will have a very spiritual experience by being closed in celebration of the birthday of our Savior. No matter how you phrase it, no matter how you spin it, that is a prime example of evangelical Christianity having lost its way. The Book of Daniel: A Form of Godliness, But Denying the Power Commentary by Mark Creech Wrapped in the garb of professed good intentions, NBC's The Book of Daniel is really a slight on genuine faith in Christ. It highlights and emphasizes "a form of godliness," but denies the power of the Gospel to transform a life.

...Yesterday the National Embryo Donation Center announced its partnership in a $309,000 embryo adoption awareness grant funded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The Baptist Health System Foundation, which will serve as the primary recipient of the federal funding, will cooperate with the National Embryo Donation Center and the Christian Medical & Dental Associations to educate the public about embryo adoption. The Center's medical director, Dr. Jeffrey Keenan, M.D., says the HHS grant will help reach and inform families facing a dilemma over stored embryos that they do not intend to use. He says the money will enable families to "make a life-affirming decision about their unused embryos while offering the miracle of childbirth to a couple who has experienced the anguish of infertility." In embryo adoption, the genetic parents determine their level of involvement and whether or not to remain anonymous; after the adoption agreement and a home study are completed, the embryos are transferred to the adoptive mother, allowing her to experience pregnancy and birth. In embryo adoptions, the adoptive parents are recognized as the child's birth parents. [Jenni Parker]

...A critic of Planned Parenthood says the organization is showing its true colors with the selection of its new president, Cecile Richards. The new head of the world's largest abortion provider is the daughter of former Texas Governor Ann Richards and was Assistant Chief of Staff to Democratic Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi. Jim Sedlak of the group STOPP International says the choice of Richards as the abortion mill's leader proves it is not what it has claimed to be for decades -- that is, a women's health organization. "Richards has absolutely no experience as a health-care executive," Sedlak contends. "She is a political person who has been in one fight after another trying to secure abortion rights in this country." According to Sedlak, Planned Parenthood takes in over 260 million tax dollars a year for its pro-abortion programs; he says the selection of Richards makes it clear that the organization's agenda is a political movement, not health advocacy. [Bill Fancher]

...Hollywood's promotion of sexual immorality was on full display last night (Jan. 16) at the Golden Globe Awards ceremony, where Brokeback Mountain -- a film about two homosexual cowboys -- won four awards, including best drama. Many critics believe the win positions the controversial film for an Academy Award. Meanwhile, homosexual and gender-bending themes abounded during last evening's Golden Globes presentation, which also featured key wins by Philip Seymour Hoffman for his portrayal of homosexual author Truman Capote in the film Capote and by Felicity Huffman for her role as a pre-operative male-to-female transsexual in Transamerica. [Fred Jackson]

...Questions and concerns have been raised over the fact that an actor playing the dual role of a slain evangelical Christian missionary and his son in the fact-based film End of the Spear is an openly homosexual "gay rights" activist. Television, stage and film actor Chad Allen came out publicly as a homosexual in a 2001 issue of the gay publication The Advocate and has since been outspoken on a number of homosexual issues, including taking part in a Larry King Live forum on same-sex marriage -- all of which leaves some Evangelicals surprised at his selection to play a dual role as two Christian characters in End of the Spear. The theatrical film is based on the true stories of five missionaries who were killed by members of the Waodani tribe in Ecuador's Amazon region and of Steve Saint, son of one of the murdered Christians, who eventually returned to that area and befriended the Waodani people. Allen portrays both Saint and his father in the movie, while Saint himself cooperated with the production, has a bit part, and even served as a stunt pilot. According to an article by Linda Rapp on the "gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and queer" culture website "glbtq.com," Allen himself voiced concerns that the Saint family might object to having a homosexual man play their family members in the film. However, to his surprise the actor learned that Steve Saint himself had approved of his casting after seeing a 2003 article in The Advocate, in which Allen talked about the importance of doing good works and serving others. In the glbtq.com article, Allen was quoted as pointing out that Saint had said the things the actor talked about in the Advocate were the very things for which he had fought his entire life, and it would be wrong not to ask Allen to play the part. A poster to an Internet Movie Database discussion board, a person who claims to have been involved with the production, said Allen became a good friend of the Saint family and once commented that "he got more acceptance and love from the Christian movie people than he's had anywhere, even in his own family." [Jenni Parker]

...A Seattle-area pastor is calling for a national boycott of Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard, Nike and other companies that support a homosexual civil rights bill in Washington state. Rev. Ken Hutcherson says he will issue the boycott Thursday on Focus on the Family's radio broadcast. He's targeting companies that signed a letter urging the addition of "sexual orientation" to a state law that bans discrimination in housing, employment and insurance based on race, gender, age, disability, religion, marital status and other factors. Hutcherson says homosexuality is none of the above, but rather a question of morals. Spokesmen for Microsoft and Boeing say they do not plan to withdraw their support for the bill. [AP]

...A Canadian evangelical leader says his country's legalization of homosexual marriage could be reversed if the Liberal government loses next Monday's national election. Rev. Tristan Emmanuel says Canada's Conservative Party has said it is "prepared to revisit the marriage issue, so that it's not a done deal." New polls show the Conservatives with a double-digit lead. Emmanuel, who heads the Equipping Christians for the Public-square Centre in Ontario, says Canadian Christians have traditionally been disengaged from politics, and docile in the face of Liberal government initiatives. He says, "The hope is that the church in Canada wakes up, gets engaged." [AP]

...In a U.S. Supreme Court ruling today (Jan. 17), the justices let stand a lower-court decision affecting Holocaust survivors and the Vatican Bank. The Supreme Court said the survivors can proceed with a lawsuit claiming the Vatican Bank and a Franciscan religious order profited from property stolen by Croatia's pro-Nazi World War Two government. The Holocaust groups claim the stolen property was used after the war to help Nazi war criminals escape from Europe to South America. The Vatican Bank, which is the financial arm of the Roman Catholic Church, and the Franciscan group both deny the claims. [Fred Jackson]

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