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. Counterfeit Love Commentary by Jane Jimenez In all our frenzy to fix what's wrong with teen sex, we have lost sight of what's wrong with teen sex. Recruiting Season Commentary by Brad Locke We are faced daily with competing philosophies about life; and like coaches who are recruting players, these philosophies' proponents are coming right into our living rooms. But unlike a college recruiting scenario, there are not multiple viable options. 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. When Bigger is Better Commentary by Mark Creech Only a nation that has completely embraced contraception would baulk at a couple having more than two or three children, and be absolutely horrified at the thought of having 17 like Vladimir and Zynaida Chernenko. Yet this is the current situation in America.

...Today's funeral for Coretta Scott King is being held at New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Lithonia, Georgia, where her daughter Bernice King is a minister. President Bush, first lady Laura Bush and former Presidents Bush, Clinton and Carter are among those paying their respects. Also attending the funeral are Bishop T.D. Jakes, gospel singer Bebe Winans, Stevie Wonder, Oprah Winfrey, Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton. The 78-year-old widow of Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., died last week at an alternative medicine clinic in Mexico, where doctors said she was battling advanced ovarian cancer. A memorial service was held yesterday at Atlanta's Ebenezer Baptist Church, where King's husband preached his Bible-based appeal for black civil rights. [AP]

...A spokesman for the Christian Coalition of Alabama says investigators from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms have joined the hunt for those responsible for a series of devastating church fires last week. John Giles says federal authorities are working hard to discover who started the fires. "There's about 40 federal agents on the ground over there investigating right now the nature of these fires and who's responsible," he notes. Giles says whoever started the blazes knew the churches. "You had to know exactly where these churches were because some of them are [on] roads way back in the woods," adds Giles. The construction of some of the rural, historic churches dates back as far back as the early 1800s, he adds. According to the Coalition spokesman, no scenario as to why the fires were set has been taken off the table. [Bill Fancher]

...An Anglican archbishop in Australia says his church must declare homosexuality what it is: a sin. According to a report in the Herald Sun (Melbourne, Australia), Archbishop of Sydney George Jensen says accepting homosexual practice is equivalent to "call[ing] holy what God calls sin to be repented on." Jensen has been critical of laws in England -- home base of the worldwide Anglican Communion -- that recognize same-sex civil unions, saying they are inconsistent with traditional teaching on marriage. And the bishop makes no excuses for addressing issues of sexuality that some might consider too personal to discuss. "Human sexuality is so constitutive of who we are and so central to culture that we are dealing with a major issue," he states. "Our culture is obsessed with sex -- so we should not be embarrassed with engaging with this issue. If we did not engage, we would be divorced from our culture." Liberal theology within his own denomination, he adds, is endangering the spread of the gospel of Christ. "If we do not stand here, we will not be able to stand anywhere," says Jensen. [Jody Brown]

...Two federal courts in the U.S. have opened the door for the continuation of what many pro-lifers believe is infanticide. Two appeals courts -- the Ninth Circuit and the Second Circuit -- have issued decisions that the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act is unconstitutional. That measure was signed into law by President George W. Bush in November 2003 but has been tied up in courts ever since. Jim Sedlak of American Life League says the recent rulings are wrong. "We now have two courts," he explains, "that have said in effect that it is okay to kill a baby when it is in the last stages of being delivered." Sedlak says the two appeals courts have determined that it is a right for someone to deliver a child -- except for the head -- and then to kill that infant before it can take its first breath. The logic of the court escapes Sedlak. "It is really infanticide," he says, "but these courts have decided that that is a right protected somehow by our Constitution -- and they have struck down an attempt to ban this kind of procedure and ... insisted that it's a constitutional right to kill these babies." [Bill Fancher]

...An Ohio sheriff says he doesn't care if the inmates in his jail are embarrassed -- he still believes a chain gang is a good way to discourage crime in his community. Butler County Sheriff Rick Jones has already created controversy by erecting a sign pointing illegal alien trespassers to the front door of his jail. But the unabashed politically incorrect law enforcement officer says his chain gangs have really created a stir. "It's not rocket science what I'm doing," the sheriff says. "I make prisoners work here, in chains -- there's only two places in the country that do that, and I'm the second." Jones insists that the local community loves his approach. "I put [the prisoners] out on the road in chains, in striped pants [and] shirts. Is it embarrassing to them? So what? Hopefully they never come back here [to jail] again." Jones says while the chain gang is voluntary, he gives troublemakers in his jail no choice about what he feeds them. That three-times-a-day "special meal," as he calls it, is known as the "Wardenburger" -- and it is approved by a dietician, he points out. "[It contains] all the nutritious things that are good for you, but it's not what your Mommy or your Aunt Nellie fixes for you," Jones says. "And you eat it three times a day -- and I don't care if you like it or not." Incidentally, there is no cable TV in Sheriff Jones' jail. [Chad Groening]

...Republican Senator James Inhofe says it's time to expose liberals and how their radical views damage national security. In a recent speech to the Heritage Foundation, the Oklahoma senator said America needs to be aware of the "idyllic blindness" of many liberal lawmakers on Capitol Hill. According to Inhofe, they are the real threat to America's national security. "I know some of the very liberal members in the House and the Senate -- and honestly, they don't think we need a military," says Inhofe. "They believe in their own hearts that if all countries would stand in a circle and hold hands and unilaterally disarm, that all threats will go away. They won't say it, but that's what they believe." Inhofe says liberal lawmakers began dismantling the military during the Clinton years, based on this idealistic view, but that President Bush's administration has done a good job of rebuilding what was destroyed. [Bill Fancher]

...Dale Lanier has found a way to get people to read and memorize Bible verses. If they walk into his convenience store in Snead, Alabama, and recite the Bible passage he has selected, they can have a free soft drink or cup of coffee. This month's memory verse is Psalm 118:8 -- "It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man" (NKJV). Lanier says he has been doing this for the last six years, and gives away between two and 12 drinks a day. He says entire families sometimes walk in and recite the Bible passage he has picked. Lanier credits God with showing him a way to share the gospel at his business. [AP]

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