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. If You Build It, Will He Come? Commentary by Brad Locke How often do we see churches build bigger, more beautiful sanctuaries? Nothing inherently wrong with that, but I don't think it should be as high on the priority list as it often is. Seed Magazine Writes About the 'Clergy Letter Project' Commentary by Mark Creech A recent article in this magazine was skewed, not surprisingly, toward evolution. Only a smidgen of my interview answers were used in the piece -- hopefully, God might use the entirety of my response (contained herein) as a means of defending and furthering the truth.

...Pro-family and religious leaders in Washington, DC, are lamenting the news that former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay is leaving the House of Representatives. Delay has been indicted for illegal use of campaign funds but has maintained his innocence. Bob Knight of the Culture and Family Institute believes the lawmaker's resignation from Congress will be a huge blow to pro-family advocates. "Tom DeLay's departure will be a tremendous loss to conservatives," Knight says, "because he did pursue a conservative agenda, especially on the moral issues." Faith and Action director Rob Schenck, a key religious leader on Capitol Hill, has also been one of Congressman Tom DeLay's strongest advocates. The ministry spokesman says he is going to miss DeLay sorely in Washington, DC, because he is "at his core a very good man" and "a very fine Christian" who has provided exemplary service. "I wrote him a letter today," Schenck notes, "and I told him how much he will be missed, that we thank God for his years of leadership. He did an excellent job, and the country will be at a loss for his absence." According to Schenck, DeLay's decision to resign is the noble way of handling the fallout from his indictment by putting his party above his own political career. [Bill Fancher]

...News that Senator John McCain will be speaking at Rev. Jerry Falwell's Liberty University next month is continuing to raise many eyebrows (see earlier article). The Republican senator from Arizona will be the commencement speaker next month at Liberty University, where Falwell is both founder and chancellor. McCain, a potential presidential candidate, says he no longer considers Falwell to be among those religious leaders he criticized during the 2000 presidential campaign, when he remarked that neither the Republican nor the Democratic Party should pander to "agents of intolerance, whether they be Louis Farrakhan or Al Sharpton on the left or Pat Robertson or Jerry Falwell on the right." The U.S. lawmaker told NBC last weekend that he and Falwell have "agreed to disagree on certain issues" and move forward. McCain also said although Christian conservatives have a major role to play in the Republican Party, he "doesn't have to agree with everything they stand for." Among those issues on which the senator diverges is the Federal Marriage Amendment; McCain has voted against the measure that would give constitutional protection to the biblical definition of marriage. [Fred Jackson]

...A lawsuit accuses Wisconsin officials of wrongly excluding religious charities from a program that lets state employees make payroll deductions to charities. The lawsuit filed by the Association of Faith-based Organizations -- a group created by the Christian Legal Society -- challenges rules that require charities receiving donations to pledge not to discriminate on the basis of religion or sexual orientation in hiring staff and accepting members. The lawsuit alleges that the rule discriminates against groups that consider homosexual behavior sinful or that require their members to share their religious beliefs. Steven Aden, a lawyer for the Virginia-based group, says the Wisconsin lawsuit is the first of several across the country that will challenge similar state-run charity programs. [AP]

...Judie Brown, president of the American Life League (ALL), is upset over the response of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to the latest deaths attributed to the abortion drug RU-486. She wants to see the federal agency held accountable. "We have to ask our members of Congress to hold a hearing to discover why it is that the Food and Drug Administration has a special love for abortion," Brown insists. The pro-life leader says the FDA violated its own rules when it approved RU-486 in the final days of the Clinton administration. She points out that a bill called "Holly's Law" would force the FDA to revisit the approval process of the drug; however, that bill has so far not made it through the approval process. Nevertheless, Brown feels the stage is set for abortion to be ended in the United States and that, with a little help from the voters, legalized abortion on demand could soon be abolished. ""We have to elect men and women to public office who will defend life without apology and without exception," the ALL spokeswoman says. Meanwhile, she contends, the tide of public opinion is turning as more and more people realize that abortion means killing a baby. "As those numbers increase and more and more people become discouraged and disgusted with what is occurring in this country on a daily basis," Brown says, "and as long as we continue to insist that Planned Parenthood and its allies are ugly and criminal in their behavior toward babies ... I have every confidence that we're going to see a change, and it will be dramatic." [Bill Fancher]

...In Nigeria, a Pentecostal movement called the Redeemed Christian Church of God is producing about a dozen movies a week. The films use popular Nigerian actors and liberally sprinkle the plots with Christian messages of salvation through faith. The first four films were instant hits in Nigeria's competitive video and DVD market. One is about a woman infected with AIDS who is cured by the Holy Spirit; another is about a pastor and his wife who finally conceive a baby after deep prayer. The Redeemed Christian Church of God claims more than five million followers in 90 nations, including the United States, where the church owns a 600-acre tract outside Dallas. [AP]

...A national defense expert and Pentagon advisor says he is concerned about the missile tests Iran has been conducting during military exercises in the Strait of Hormuz, a strategically important channel of water between the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman. Retired Army Lieutenant Colonel Bob Maginnis maintains that the recent saber-rattling by Iran is a deliberate effort to thumb its nose at the United States and the rest of the civilized world. Still, the former U.S. infantry commander says he is concerned about the reported new underwater missile the Iranians test-fired last Sunday. The projectile is "a torpedo -- really a rocket-like system -- that arguably could be used short-range to go after submarines or surface ships," Maginnis notes. "So we face a long-term, uphill confrontation with Iran." The American military advisor says Iran is a much more daunting adversary than other rogue states, such as North Korea, since "the difference between North Korea and Iran is that Iran is filthy rich in oil." The Iranians are conducting a 1,700-man exercise this week in the Strait of Hormuz, a strip of ocean Maginnis describes as "very critical," as 25 percent of the world's oil passes through the narrow waterway. [Chad Groening]

...Religious freedom advocates are hoping some changes will be made in both the Afghan and the Iraqi constitutions. Islam expert Robert Spencer of Jihad Watch says the case of Abdul Rahman, a man condemned to death for converting from Islam to Christianity, exposes a flaw in the Middle Eastern countries' governing documents. Spencer says it is to be hoped that sometime soon President Bush, having determined to keep his Mid-East partners in the cause of freedom on the side of freedom, "will call for the removal of the Sharia provisions in the Afghan and Iraqi constitutions." The expert on Islamic religion and culture says without the removal of these provisions, the two nations' constitutions will continue to conflict with international human rights standards. Afghanistan's and Iraq's constitutions claim to respect the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, he points out. That U.N. document provides for freedom of conscience, Spencer notes, but "it doesn't say that no law can be made contradicting it, and [for these two Middle East nations] Islamic Sharia is clearly the highest law of the land." [Bill Fancher]

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