OUR COLUMNISTS The Passion of the President: Ronald Reagan on Christ and the Crucifixion Guest Commentary by Paul Kengor Long before the editorial pages of the New York Times flogged Mel Gibson for his film or denounced George W. Bush for citing Jesus Christ as his favorite philosopher, they assailed Ronald Reagan for his thoughts on the Nazarene Carpenter. The Circus Is in Town Commentary by Brad Locke Sports has long been an escape for many from the drudgeries of routine and reality, providing thrilling moments of inspirational human achievement. But lately it has become the latest frontier in our voyeuristic culture, its virgin soil being trampled, tilled and left to the eroding elements of excess. The Power of the Word Commentary by David Sisler When was the last time you were talking with a friend and you overlooked a kindness that had been done for you? Later, did you think of something special you might have said, and think, "I wish I would have said that." It's Not the Economy, Stupid! Commentary by Mark Creech No one can rightly deny the importance of economic matters to the country. However, when a culture measures and considers everything in terms of dollars and cents, it's subject to lose its soul. Bill Clinton is a case in point. No president ever did more to assault American ideals.

...Authorities in Malcom, Nebraska, say it could have been the worst school shooting since the Columbine incident in 1999. A teenager at the local high school was arrested this week after police found him with 20 homemade bombs, a rifle, and a note saying he wanted to injure everyone at the school except three friends. Seventeen-year-old Josh Magee has been charged with attempted murder. [Fred Jackson]

...One family-values activist in Michigan took his campaign against broadcast indecency to the nation's capital this week, where he met with one of the commissioners of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). Gary Glenn, president of the American Family Association of Michigan, met with FCC Commissioner Michael Copps on Tuesday to discuss a Michigan family's unwanted exposure to obscene broadcast material during their stay at a hotel northwest of Detroit. According to Glenn, a mother and her 10-year-old son were exposed to "explicit sexual conduct" on the television in the exercise room of the Hampton Inn in Mt. Pleasant. Based on his discussion with Copps, Glenn says his group will join that family's attorney in filing an obscenity complaint with the FCC against the Hampton Inn. He says the hotel chain does nothing to protect children from viewing sexually explicit videos, and instead -- "like other big-name hotel pornographers" -- shifts responsibility to the parents. "That's like drug dealers claiming they're innocent of breaking the law because parents don't stop them from selling drugs to their children," he says. Distribution of obscene material is a federal crime, Glenn points out, and distribution to a minor child is a separately prosecutable offense. While meeting with Copps, the Michigan pro-family leader took the opportunity to urge the FCC to increase fines for violations of existing broadcast indecency standards, to apply those standards to cable and satellite broadcasts, and to require local cable providers to "unbundle" cable channel packages so subscribers to basic cable service are not forced to pay for channels they do not want in their homes. [Jody Brown]

...Rev. Karen Dammann openly admits violating the United Methodist Church's rule against "self-avowed practicing homosexuals" being ministers. But at her church trial in suburban Seattle, Dammann insists that she is right, and the Methodist Book of Discipline is wrong. In her words, "God called me into ordained ministry and I just can't believe that God makes a mistake." Dammann married her long-time lesbian partner last week in Portland, Oregon. During Thursday's testimony, Dammann's defense team called witnesses in an attempt to demonstrate her good character. They also sought to show how church officials knew Dammann was a lesbian five years ago and took no action against her. Dammann is being tried by a jury of 13 other pastors. Nine votes are needed for conviction, which would be followed by the same jury setting a penalty that could include removal from ministry. [AP]

...At a closed-door meeting starting today in Texas, Episcopal bishops hope to quell the discord that has erupted over their consecration of an openly homosexual bishop. New Hampshire Bishop V. Gene Robinson is attending his first meeting as part of a hierarchy in which 41 percent of bishops who head dioceses voted against his consecration and 28 bishops refuse to recognize him as a colleague. Episcopal headquarters says the meeting's focus is "reconciliation." The bishops are discussing how to handle conservative parishes that do not want to quit the Episcopal Church but cannot accept the authority of local bishops who favor homosexual clergy. The proposed remedy is to provide dissenting parishes with conservative bishops from outside their dioceses. At issue is whether local bishops could veto such visits. [AP]

...A federal judge has given a Florida ministry a victory by ruling that a county could not bar it from operating. Since 1993, Open Homes Fellowship has operated a church and an alcohol/drug rehabilitation program that emphasizes a relationship with Christ as the way to gain freedom from addictions. Orange County, Florida, officials recently denied Open Homes a permit to continue operating and ordered them to vacate the property. But Federal Judge Gregory Presnell ruled that the county's attempt to evict the church was unconstitutional. Mat Staver, president of Liberty Counsel, says the judge's ruling sends a message that ministries cannot be discriminated against because they are faith-based. "This is a tremendous victory -- not only for religious freedom, but certainly for these individuals that Open Homes ministers to, taking them off the street, giving them a new life in Jesus Christ, and making them productive citizens once again," the attorney says. Staver adds that Orange County learned a valuable and expensive lesson from this case: that the discrimination they practiced cannot be tolerated in today's society. [Rusty Pugh]

...An author and veteran Pentagon correspondent says it is fortunate that President Bush has Donald Rumsfeld running the Pentagon during this political season. He says the Defense Secretary remains focused on hunting down al-Qaida despite continued Democratic anti-war rhetoric. John Kerry marked the first anniversary of Operation Iraqi Freedom this week by again criticizing President Bush for "holding on to failed policies that drive away potential allies." In his new book Rumsfeld's War: The Untold Story of America's Anti-Terrorist Commander, Rowan Scarborough praises the Defense Secretary for not being distracted by politics. "Rumsfeld is pretty well fixed on this thing. He's not letting the political noise get in his way," the author says. "If you read [in my book] about 60 pages of confidential memos and reports I obtained, you can see how fixed he is on turning the Pentagon around and getting them to understand that they have to go out and kill al-Qaida." Scarborough says Democrats have clearly abandoned Mr. Bush on the war, and that in November voters will have the opportunity to show which position they support. (See Related Article) [Chad Groening]

...Another report is confirming that Palestinian terrorists are willing to do almost anything to deliver a bomb, including the murder of one of their own children. WorldNetDaily says a group of Palestinian terrorists in Nablus recently tried to use an 11-year-old boy to smuggle a bomb through an Israeli checkpoint. The child was given the bomb in a paper bag and told to take it to a woman on the other side of the roadblock. But when he was stopped by the soldiers, the terrorists attempted to use a cell phone to detonate it. Fortunately, it did not work. Walid Shoebat trained as a Palestinian terrorists, but has since become a born-again Christian. He says the hatred Palestinians have for the Jews starts at an early age. "The songs that we sang -- 'Sharpen my bones and make them swords. Make me a Molotov cocktail. Make me a bomb. May I explode into my enemies' -- all those wicked songs that we learned as children. I memorized all of them; sucked them [up] like a sponge," the former terrorist says. The WorldNetDaily report says 29 homicide bombers younger than 18 have been dispatched by Palestinian terrorists since the current intifada began. [Fred Jackson]

...A Southern Baptist spokesman says this week's deaths of more SBC missionaries at the hands of Islamic terrorists will not stop efforts to spread the gospel of Christ. Within the past two years, Southern Baptists have had three missionary doctors gunned down in Yemen, one at an airport in the Philippines, and now five in the deserts of Iraq. Wendy Norvelle of the SBC's International Mission Board says such tragedies revel the true hearts of missionaries. "The passion of the people who are available to serve is just amazing," Norvelle says. "In fact, after the tragedy in Yemen last year we had more people volunteering [to go to the mission field] than ever before." Though the IMB, both through governments and with contacts on the ground, is constantly monitoring conditions all around the world where their missionaries are serving, Norvelle says the risks remain -- and the missionaries want to remain as well. [Bill Fancher]

...Billy Graham's childhood home will soon be moved to his organization's new headquarters and opened to visitors. Plans are under way to relocate the farmhouse from its present site in Fort Mill, South Carolina, to the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association property in Charlotte, North Carolina. The Graham family lived in the house from around 1929 to 1982. It was acquired by a developer, then moved to the property of PTL founder Jim Bakker as an attraction for his religious and entertainment complex. Bakker's complex closed after the PTL scandal erupted. The two-story, red-brick home and a library filled with Graham memorabilia is scheduled to open late next year. Organizers predict thousands of tourists will visit there annually. [Fred Jackson/AP]

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