OUR COLUMNISTS NBC's, CBS's Lack of Restraint in Reporting Puts U.S. Troops at Risk in Iraq Guest Commentary by James Lambert News agencies like NBC and CBS are highlighting images from Iraq without counting the cost to those who fight for the freedoms the media take so easily for granted. Holy Indignation, Batman! Commentary by Jane Jimenez The NFL could take a few lessons from Batman. He knew what evil looked like, and he went after it with a vengeance. So why isn't the NFL facing down porn producers who are intent on degrading the last bastion of wholesome family entertainment? Dear Coach Meyer Commentary by Brad Locke Coach Urban Meyer, do you really want to be part of Notre Dame's fall, wittingly or not? Do you want to associate with people who have suddenly abandoned the integrity they once prided themselves on? Bush Re-Election Helped from Unexpected Source Commentary by David Sisler I have a theory about why George W. Bush was re-elected. If homosexuals had not flaunted their Scripture-violating lifestyle in the face of God and man, the marriage issue would not have been on the 2004 ballot in 11 states. And George W. Bush may well have been defeated. Thankfulness or Thanklessness: Where Virtue Begins or Ends Commentary by Mark Creech Cicero once wrote, "Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues but also the parent of all the others." I couldn't agree more with the great philosopher. But if thankfulness is at the heart of all virtue, certainly thanklessness is the mother of all sins.

...Two California lawmakers are preparing to introduce legislation that would place in the state constitution language defining marriage as between one man and one woman. Almost five years ago, more than 61 percent of voters in the Golden State approved Proposition 22, a law that says marriage in California is reserved for a man and a woman. On Monday (December 6), Assemblyman Ray Haynes and Senator Bill Morrow plan to announce their intentions to introduce legislation that would codify the language of Prop. 22 into the state constitution. The bill would also clarify that the right and duties of marriage cannot be extended to same-sex "marriage." California groups such as the Capitol Resource Institute in Sacramento and the Traditional Values Coalition in Anaheim have expressed their support for the legislation. Opposition is expected from legislators such as Democrat Assemblyman Mark Leno, who is expected to reintroduce his measure that would bestow upon homosexual couples the right to marry. TVC founder and chairman Rev. Louis Sheldon says advocates of traditional marriage will not back away from the fight. "The momentum to preserve traditional marriage has spread like wildfire across the country," Sheldon says. "We intend to add California to those 11 other states that passed marriage amendments on November 2, preserving marriage for one man and one woman." [Jody Brown]

...The Committee to Save Merry Christmas has launched a boycott effort against Federated Department Stores over a policy banning the use of the words "Merry Christmas" in pre-holiday advertising and in in-store displays. Committee chairman Manuel Zamorano says the ban has offended the sensibilities of millions of Americans. And he calls on removing Federated-owned stores from Christmas shopping lists. Those stores include Bloomingdale's, Goldsmith's-Macy's, and Lazarus-Macy's. He says politically correct phrases like "Seasons Greetings" and "Happy Holidays" are no substitute for the real thing. Zamorano says the group really did not want to resort to a boycott but that the company has said it does not plan to change its diversity policies to accommodate the "Merry Christmas" request. [AP]

...A pro-family activist from Virginia says voters who put Republicans in office should demand that politicians not employ key personnel who don't hold the conservative views that the party promotes. That activist says the Capitol Hill office of Virginia Senator George Allen is a good example. Senator Allen is head of the Republican Senatorial Committee and was a key figure in the GOP's big victories in November. But Joe Glover, president of the Virginia-based Family Policy Network, says something is very wrong. Glover says homosexual publications have outed at least six members of the senator's office as homosexuals. He says one homosexual activist even went so far as to say Allen had the "gayest office on Capitol Hill." Pro-family conservatives, he says, need to make sure Senator Allen hears their voices. "If someone is going to run the day-to-day operations for the Republican apparatus to elect U.S. senators across the country, then dog-gone-it, it better not be somebody who practices a lifestyle that is diametrically opposed to the evangelical Christian base that delivered George W. Bush and the Republicans in the Senate the victory they saw in November," he says. Glover says Allen's executive director recently resigned because he was outed as a homosexual. [Rusty Pugh]

...Frustration with public education seems to be growing among the nation's Southern Baptists, with supporters of Christian schools and home schooling arguing that if God is absent from the classroom then their children should leave, too. Ed Gamble heads the Southern Baptist Association of Christian Schools, an Orlando, Florida-based group that supports more than 600 Southern Baptist schools created in the past eight years. Gamble says as the public schools "have become increasingly secular and increasingly intolerant of things Christian" people have decided to go somewhere else. He says it is not so much that Christians are leaving the public schools as that the public schools have left the Christians. Earlier this year, a resolution proposed at the national meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention -- which guides the nation's largest Protestant denomination -- urged parents to withdraw their children from "officially Godless" public schools in favor of religious education. While that measure was rejected, interest in faith-based schools has continued to spread among Baptists at the state level. [AP]

...The co-founder of a pro-family Canadian organization says it's shameful that Canada's liberal government didn't invite President George W. Bush to address Parliament during his visit north last week. Brian Rushfeldt is president of the Canada Family Action Coalition. Rushfeldt says he was very pleased that Bush engaged in dialogue with the liberal Canadian government, even though they remain apart on many issues. "It's very difficult to resolve issues when you've got very opposing views, whether it be [on] missile defense, socialism, trade," he observes, "so I think the ability to meet face-to-face with President Bush, for a whole number of people in Canada-- not just our prime minister -- was the positive." But Rushfeldt believes President Bush should clearly have addressed the Canadian Parliament. "There was a reluctance on President Bush's part to [address] Parliament, but his reluctance was based in the fact that there has been a lot of anti-Bush, anti-American sentiment within our Canadian Parliament -- and that's the shameful part," he says. Rushfeldt believes Bush's visit mended some of the destruction Canada's previous prime minister, Jean Chretien, did to U.S.-Canada relations. [Chad Groening]

...A recent report shows there was a record number of caesarean births in 2003. The head of the Christian Medical & Dental Associations says there are two reasons for the increase. The report from the National Center for Health Statistics says about one out of every four babies delivered in the U.S. was born by caesarean section. The study did not distinguish between necessary and elective procedures. Dr. David Stevens with the CMDA says one of the reasons for the increase is the extremely high malpractice costs for OB/GYNs. "Doctors are taking women to C-section more quickly because of their concern of a bad outcome -- and the largest awards in malpractice are for problems that occur during birth," he explains. "That's why OB/GYNs have one of the highest malpractice insurance rates in the country." Stevens says the second reason for the increase is last year's new recommendation from the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology saying once a woman has a C-section she should always have one. [Mary Rettig]

© 2004 AgapePress all rights reserved.

E-mail this page to a friend

Printer-Friendly Version

Read all of our current headlines