OUR COLUMNISTS Truth Isn't Enough ... You Must Weep Commentary by Matt Friedeman Whether making a political case or not, Christians must be people with a testimony, with a compassionate tale to tell, with compelling emotions to accompany our well-crafted arguments. The Gift of Kindness Commentary by Jane Jimenez With the entire country engaged in finding the perfect Valentine's Day gift, could we imagine a year of endless days for Valentine gifts ... a day that never ends? An Olympic Prayer Revisited Commentary by Brad Locke I don't expect Olympic officials to allow any sort of prayer, ever, during the opening ceremonies or at any other time during the Games ... but just in case. Comparing Islamic Fascists to Christian Conservatives Commentary by Mark Creech The media has often compared Christian conservatives in America to violent Islamic radicals. Such comparisons are common today by those on the left, but nothing less than asinine -- and recent events on the world stage prove it.

...President Bush's domestic policy advisor, Claude Allen, has announced his resignation, citing his desire to spend more time with his family. However, rumors persist that he left his post out of frustration. The Capitol Hill rumor mill says Allen, a strong pro-family Christian advocate, resigned because his advice was being ignored by the Bush administration. Rob Schenck of the National Clergy Council says it often happens that "Christians in the highest levels of government ... are not taken seriously or they are pressured out or put outside the loop." He says believers can sometimes be thwarted by those in the administration who do not share their values or principles. That leads to frustration, Schenck contends, and causes some people of faith working in government to feel that "they're no longer making a contribution; they need to leave. So this could be one of those situations where we have another Christian as a casualty of the culture wars in our country." This is what many Washington insiders believe happened with Claude Allen. [Bill Fancher]

...The Ohio school board has removed a passage from the state's science standards that critics said opened the door to teaching intelligent design. The Ohio Board of Education voted 11-4 yesterday to delete material encouraging students to seek evidence for and against evolution. The 2002 science standards included a disclaimer that they did not require the teaching of intelligent design, which holds that life is too complex to have evolved by accident. In December, a federal judge in Pennsylvania ruled that intelligent design is religion masquerading as science, and that teaching it alongside evolution violates separation of church and state. [AP]

...A conservative Christian activist who said his free-speech rights were violated has settled his lawsuit against Pennsylvania's Lansdowne Borough Council. Michael Marcavage, founder of Repent America, started to speak during the public comment period of a Lansdowne council meeting in July 2004, but said he was cut off and when he started to read from the Bible. Marcavage's attorney says the borough has agreed that every citizen has the right to address the council "on any issue of concern about the affairs of the community." The borough's solicitor says its guidelines now limit citizens' comments to seven minutes, but adds that the borough's insurance will pay Marcavage's legal fees. [AP]

...Some say it could be the first "gay cowboy song" by a major recording artist. Singer Willie Nelson chose Valentine's Day to unveil an anthem entitled "Cowboys Are Frequently Secretly Fond of Each Other," in which he delivers lines like "There's many a cowboy who don't understand the way that he feels toward his brother" and "Inside every cowboy there's a lady who'd love to slip out." The song, which debuted yesterday on Howard Stern's satellite radio show, was written by a Texas-born singer-songwriter named Ned Sublette in 1981. According to Associated Press, Nelson actually recorded "Cowboys Are Frequently Secretly Fond of Each Other" last year. In a prepared statement, the man known to fans as one of country music's outlaws remarked, "The song's been in the closet for 20 years. The timing's right for it to come out. I'm just opening the door." Nelson also recorded one of the tracks included on the Brokeback Mountain motion picture soundtrack, a cover called "He was a Friend of Mine." [Fred Jackson/Jenni Parker]

...Film lovers that fall among the 90 million Americans who identify themselves as "spiritual but not religious," will be excited to hear about the 2006 "Spiritual Cinema Festival-at-Sea." According to a Religion News Service press release, the weeklong film festival, which takes place April 22-29, 2006, on Holland America's M/S Oosterdam (departing from San Diego, California), will showcase a variety of spiritual films, workshops, special screenings, and panel discussions as well as a cocktail party, formal dinners, and several informal gatherings for filmmakers and attendees alike. The festival features 25 hours of screenings of spirituality-themed feature-length and short films during a cruise through the Mexican Riviera, and will be capped off with a closing night awards ceremony. This Spiritual Cinema Festival-at-Sea is spearheaded by Spiritual Cinema Circle co-founder, veteran filmmaker Stephen Simon ("Somewhere in Time," "What Dreams May Come") and is being billed as a unique floating film festival celebrating "the heart and soul of cinema." Joining the cruise are a number of special guests, including best-selling author of the "Conversations with God" book series, Neale Donald Walsch, who will screen segments of the upcoming release of the movie Conversations With God along with director Stephen Simon. Last year Spiritual Cinema's floating film festival drew a sold-out crowd of 300 with attendees from all parts of the U.S. and the world including Denmark, Singapore, Australia, Canada, Argentina, Ireland, the United Kingdom, Sweden, and other countries. More than 300 are expected to participate in this year's festivities. [Jenni Parker]

...A volunteer group dedicated to cutting down the flow of illegal aliens into the United States says it is committed to defending America's southern border in 2006, even if the Bush administration continues to pander to Mexican President Vicente Fox. According to Minuteman Civil Defense Corps spokesman Al Garza, the "Minutemen" plan even bigger and bolder operations in 2006. He says the recent speech by President Bush regarding the illegal alien problem indicates that the U.S. president is more interested in accommodating his friend, the president of Mexico, than in looking out for the American people. Garza thinks it is "very obvious" that Mr. Bush and President Fox are "buddies." For this reason, the Corps spokesman asserts, the American president "doesn't want to impose on Mr. Fox and call him names [and he wants to] make sure that his economic situation is good. But the problem there is the fact that he is not working for the citizens of America." Still, Garza promises, the Minutemen are not about to give the U.S. away, just "because Fox feels that we should give him the benefits." Mexico is reportedly the "sixth or seventh wealthiest nation in the world," the border security advocate notes. "Why are these people coming here if, in fact, that country is so wealthy?" he asks. "Something is wrong. Where is that money going? It's not going into the hands of its people." Garza says the Minutemen are "virtually all veterans that have fought for the United States" and who are "not going to just give it away" because they are all patriots who have paid dearly to secure the freedoms Americans currently enjoy. [Chad Groening]

...Pro-family activist Gary Bauer, director of Campaign for Working Families, believes the stage is being set for a clash of civilizations. He says the recent "hate speech" messages to Hajj pilgrims in Mecca, the riots over cartoons of Muhammed, and Iran's push for nuclear weapons all point to a confrontation Islamofascists have been wanting with the West. "There's just a great deal of evidence that, while we try to avoid a war of civilizations, many Islamists are moving in exactly the opposite direction," Bauer contends. He says the Islamic worldview is one of domination, while the Western worldview is one of individual freedom. "It's a very fine line between avoiding that and deceiving ourselves about what we're up against," the conservative spokesman asserts. "And the fact of the matter is that there are tens of thousands of Muslim leaders, mosque heads, imams, cultural leaders, et cetera, who are continually telling millions and millions of Muslims that they must wage jihad against the United States." Bauer believes this, along with a plethora of other evidence, indicates that radical Islam is eager for this impending clash with the West. [Bill Fancher]

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