OUR COLUMNISTS Post the Ten Commandments, or ... ? Commentary by Matt Friedeman Instead of posting the Ten Commandments ... or even The Beatitudes ... how about displaying the two commandments upon which Jesus said "all the law and the prophets hang"? Public Policy Never Mended a Broken Heart Commentary by Jane Jimenez Americans can list the litany of social ills threatening our way of life. If only the solutions were as easy to identify. The Great Diversion Commentary by Brad Locke Many men would be mistaken for mutes if we didn't have sports. While it's not inherently evil to talk about sports, when there is opportunity to talk about more important things, we should seize the moment. Amnesia Commentary by David Sisler What would it be like to wake up and not remember the evil that you had done, the people you had hurt, the sins you had committed? What would you pay for a little selective amnesia? Seeing Islam Through 'Condi-Colored Glasses' Commentary by Mark Creech The fact of the matter is that violent jihad warfare against non-Muslims is at the heart of Islamic theology. And it is the mother of all politically correct myths to believe otherwise.

...Anglican archbishops from Asia, Africa and Latin America have urged their conservative American counterparts to split from the Episcopal Church USA. One of the bishops, Datuk Yong Ping Chung of Southeast Asia, said the panel of bishops will stand with the conservative parishes as long as they remain "faithful, biblical, evangelical, and orthodox." The seven archbishops spoke at this past weekend's "Hope and a Future Conference" in Pittsburgh, which was organized by the Anglican Communion Network. The network is headed by Pittsburgh's Episcopal Bishop Robert Duncan, who helped form the group after the Episcopal Church consecrated an openly homosexual bishop, Gene Robinson, who now presides over the diocese of New Hampshire. Duncan calls the difference in beliefs between his group and ECUSA "a symptom of a deeper problem, which is the diminution of the authority of Holy Scripture." Supporters of the Episcopal Church's policy have called Duncan and his backers "neo-Puritan" fundamentalists. [AP]

...Michael Newdow has spent years trying to ban recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance in public schools. Now the professed atheist says he will file a lawsuit this week asking a federal court to order removal of the national motto "In God We Trust" from U.S. coins and currency because, in his opinion, it violates the religious rights of atheists who belong to his "First Amendmist Church of True Science." The church's "three suggestions" are "question, be honest and do what's right." Newdow says it would not be right to take up a collection when the money says "In God We Trust." Last year, the Supreme Court dismissed Newdow's lawsuit over the words "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance because he does not have custody of his daughter, in whose name the lawsuit was filed. Newdow has since resurrected that case by filing an identical lawsuit on behalf of two families. Meanwhile, the U.S. Supreme Court declined today (Nov. 14) to review a ruling that the same four-word phrase inscribed above the entrance to a government building in Lexington, North Carolina, does not violate church-state separation. A lower court had ruled that the lawsuit, brought by two attorneys, had failed to prove the inscription -- the National Motto -- had the effect of endorsing religion or had resulted in an excessive entanglement of government and religion. [AP / Reuters ]

...The president of Liberty Counsel says an Ohio library has settled in a lawsuit over its policy which banned controversial speech. Mat Staver says in May his legal firm asked the Newton Falls Library for use of their community room to give presentations on the biblical perspective of marriage. Staver says they included in the application the fact that there would be prayer and scripture reading. "This particular library policy said that if the program deals with a controversial subject, then all sides of the issue must be presented," he explains. "After we filed our application, the library director sent the application back and denied the application -- and in the denial section he said the reason is that we were dealing with a controversial subject." Staver says it is ridiculous for the library to have a policy like this because it lends itself to censorship. So they filed a federal lawsuit, and the library quickly agreed to remove the policy removing all sides to be presented in discussions of "controversial" issues. "The library now has agreed to repeal that offending language and enter into a court-approved settlement so that this kind of a policy does not resurface again," he says. Liberty Counsel plans to now go back to the Newton Falls Library to give its marriage presentation. [Mary Rettig]

...A pro-family activist in Washington believes the pro-abortion lobby is trying a new strategy to push their agenda. Wendy Wright of Concerned Women for America says the new strategy involves a matter of semantics. "The abortion lobby is very unsuccessful nowadays when the topic is abortion," Wright states. "They lose public opinion [and] they don't look good when the topic is abortion. So they want to shift the debate to Plan B, to the 'morning-after' pill." Wright says a new bill on the abortion drug has found plenty of support in the House. The bill would force the Food and Drug Administration to act quickly on making the morning-after abortion pill available over the counter. If the FDA fails to act within a certain period of time, this new bill gives Congress the authority to approve that status for the pill. Wright expects this to be the new abortion battleground. [Bill Fancher]

...A national security and foreign affairs analyst says there is no way to verify the validity of a recent report in a Pakistani newspaper that terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden died of natural causes this past summer. Army Lt. Col. (Ret.) Bob Maginnis says it has been about a year since the terrorist leader was last seen and heard on videotape. Since that time, Maginnis notes, six audio tapes have been released by bin Laden's deputy. Then, Maginnis says, a Pakistani newspaper recently printed an obituary. And while he says Pakistani papers are "notorious for not being totally reliable," the report is "probably the best thing we have." According to Maginnis, the newspaper reported that bin Laden died almost four months ago of natural causes. "We've always known that bin Laden has had a kidney malfunction [and] needed to do dialysis; that he needed constant medical attention," he says. Maginnis suggests it is quite possible that bin Laden did die -- but for political reasons, al Queda has not announced his death in order to perpetuate the mythology of the terrorist figure. [Chad Groening]

...An immigration reform organization is concerned that lawyers of illegal aliens may be able to use non-payment of wages as a way to get their clients a free ticket to remain in the United States. Associated Press has reported that a number of illegal aliens hired to work in the Hurricane Katrina clean-up effort have not been paid. Ira Mehlman of the Federation for American Immigration Reform says while it is a violation of the law to hire illegal immigrants, it is also not right for contractors to withhold their wages. "The employers should not be given a free ride in this case," says Mehlman. "But at the same time, the fact that these people happen to have been exploited shouldn't be a justification for them being allowed to remain in this country, which is very often what the advocates for illegal aliens try to do." Mississippi State Auditor Phil Bryant says there are enough Americans out of work to make it unnecessary to hire undocumented workers in the first place. "The laws of the United States of America and the laws of the state of Mississippi say you need to be a citizen," the state official explains. "If you're going to come here and work, there are steps that you can go through to do that -- and contractors need to know that they have some responsibility." Bryant plans to urge the state legislature to pass stricter state laws in dealing with employers who hire illegal aliens. [Chad Groening]

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