OUR COLUMNISTS Reclaiming Love Commentary by Jane Jimenez We have lost the understanding that a house divided cannot stand. Integrity is now passé. If we want to restore the future happiness of our children, we must restore our culture. We must reclaim our integrity. Lessons from Doc Commentary by Brad Locke Follow your heart, we are told, and it will lead you to your dreams. It will lead you to happiness. It will lead you to purpose. I have shocking news: the heart cannot be trusted. NC Judge Ignores Scandalous Dealings, Dismisses Lottery Lawsuit Commentary by Mark Creech It was a sad day for justice in North Carolina. Instead it was an illegitimate victory for a legislature that overstepped its constitutional parameters, and for the gambling industry which on Thursday intends to start fleecing the citizens of the Tar Heel State.

...With the lowest voter turnout in Israel's history, Ehud Olmert's Kadima party claimed victory in yesterday's election. In claiming victory, Olmert said if necessary, he will act on his own to withdraw Israelis from much of the West Bank and set the nation's borders by 2010, effectively allowing the Palestinians to have a state. The founder and director of Minnesota-based Olive Tree Ministries says she believes so many people in Israel were tired of the endless terrorist attacks in Israel that they were willing to elect an appeasement government. Jan Markell, whose group is dedicated to a safe and secure Israel, says she is not surprised that the centrist Kadima party was the top vote-getter, with the liberal Labor party finishing second. "These are the very parties that have sworn to tear down fortifications, homes, communities, and a lot more that have stood for decades since the Six-Day War [in June 1967], in a sense protecting Israel," Markell says. "But the leadership of these parties will be giving away -- if they hold to what they have been saying -- massive amounts of land." She fears that the election results have sent a message that the Israeli people are willing to give up even more of their covenant land to appease the Palestinians. "The Israelis seem to be deluded that we can still give peace a chance. Now this is after they've observed the abysmal results of the Gaza disengagement, and it will be repeated -- except this time with tens of thousands more Israelis -- and [after] the fact that Gaza has turned into a Taliban-style state," she observes. "None of this seems to matter because [in their minds] there is still the hope that we just might be able to have peace if we just do this and give up this." Markell believes no matter how much land the Israelis are willing to give up, the Palestinians will never be satisfied until the Jewish nation is completely removed from the map. The once strong Likud party, headed by Binyamin Netanyahu, finished with a poor showing in the elections. [Jody Brown/Chad Groening]

...Participants in a Washington conference have been warned that America deserves God's judgment for abortion and the decline of marriage. On the final day of the conference titled "The War on Christians and the Values Voter in 2006," Rev. Laurence White condemned decades of abortion, calling it an American "Holocaust" that the church has done too little to stop. White, who heads the Greater Houston Area Pastors Roundtable, also said marriage is under assault -- as much from Christians who divorce as from activists demanding same-sex "marriage." Unless Christians act to stop what he calls America's "unrighteousness, evil, corruption, perversion and death," White says "God will -- and God should -- judge America." [AP]

...Its former top diplomat is questioning the effectiveness of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom. Robert Seiple, who served as the first Ambassador-at-large for International Religious Freedom, says the Commission risks weakening U.S. influence by concentrating on sharply worded declarations and calls for sanctions rather than encouraging step-by-step negotiations. Seiple says, "The commission sees itself set up to be a watchdog and the only way you can be a watchdog is to bark really loud" against nations that persecute religious believers. He says the confrontational approach does not work and has produced a confusing contrast with the less confrontational style of the State Department. [AP]

...Property-rights activists claim a long-overdue reform bill is about to become a hot topic on Capitol Hill. J. Payton Knight of the National Center for Public Policy Research says he is glad to see the Endangered Species Act on the congressional agenda. That Act, he asserts, needs to undergo a drastic makeover. "It is imperative that this bill, once and for all, protect American property owners from land devaluation from finding endangered species on their property," he says. According to Knight, a sizeable number of Americans are fed up with the government for doing exactly that. "A couple weeks ago, a large coalition of 85 groups delivered a letter to Senator [James] Inhofe," he explains, "demanding that property owners be compensated 100 percent of the lost value of their property when the government takes that property to protect a spotted owl, a rat, a mouse, or a frog or what have you." Once an endangered species is found on property, that property can no longer be developed or used as the owner intended -- thereby devaluing the property and allowing the government to take it at low dollar compensation. [Bill Fancher]

...The founder of the Minuteman Project says next month's border watch operation is going to be bigger and bolder than ever. Last April the Minuteman Project was birthed in the Arizona desert. Volunteers in that operation made huge headlines when they significantly reduced the flow of illegal aliens across their section of the U.S.-Mexico border. The brainchild of retired California CPA Jim Gilchrist has grown substantially since then. "We went from about a thousand in April of last year to 4,400 in October of last year," the Project's founder shares. "Now this one will be about 2,000 higher than that -- about 6,500." Gilchrist says the "Minutemen" will continue to be needed as long as the American government fails to adequately deal with the onslaught of illegal immigrants coming in from Mexico. "There are approximately, right now, 30 million illegal aliens currently occupying U.S. territory with no intention of assimilating into the United States, nor leaving," he says. "It's a literal transfer of Third World countries, predominantly Mexico, into the United States, literally taking over entire regions." Gilchrist says next month's operation will cover all four southern border states (California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas), as well as ten states along the border between the U.S. and Canada. [Chad Groening]

...A multi-ministry effort to evangelize the "millennium" generation of young people is now in full swing. It's called "Operation Battle Cry," and Ron Luce of Teen Mania Ministries explains what it is all about. "Battle Cry is part of an initiative that we're a part of as well as about 30 other ministries that have rallied together to rescue and touch this generation," Luce says. According to the ministry leader, the battle for the heart and soul of the current teen generation is being lost. "For all that's been done in the name of youth ministry, at the present rate of evangelism only four percent of this new, millennial generation will be Bible-believing, evangelical Christians," he laments. "Most people who come to Christ do so before they're 20, and there's only about five years before most of this generation is into their 20s. So there's this sense of urgency, like we better do something a lot different and a lot more than what we've ever done." Luce is convinced "Battle Cry" will provide the emphasis needed to reach out to that group of young people with the message of salvation -- and he predicts the negative trend will turn around in a year or two as more and more of that age group will accept Christ as their personal Savior. [Bill Fancher]

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