OUR COLUMNISTS Energy Insanity Guest Commentary by James L. Lambert America's reliance on foreign oil is potentially very dangerous, especially today when Western culture is so actively threatened by radical militants and Wahabee terrorists. It would only take one coup d'etat to upset the world's energy markets. All of our political leaders must clearly understand the need to lessen our dependence on foreign oil. Charitable Hearts Commentary by Brad Locke Professional athletes who give quietly and for unselfish motives are to be applauded and emulated by the rest of us. However, there is a dangerous, often subtle paradigm established by those who can write the check but can't cash it. I'm Not a Smart Man Commentary by David Sisler I think I've said it before, but just for the record, Forrest Gump and I are honest men. We know that we don't know. Sometimes we even know what we don't know. Reading the daily newspapers this weekend I am convinced that we are not alone. Simply Rearing Pagans Commentary by Mark Creech Between 12 and 15 million evangelical Christian children attend public schools. If the mass majority of these students were to leave public education, it would cripple the one system that is doing more harm to our nation than any single thing except perhaps the popular media.

...Macaulay Culkin says getting "saved" was just an act for his fellow actors in the new movie Saved, which depicts a Christian high school as being full of scandal and hypocrisy. Culkin says he, Mandy Moore, and other cast members attended real Christian youth rallies -- and some even answered the altar call -- just "to go through the whole experience" and prepare for their roles as Christian students. Culkin says he is glad that his role as a cynical student did not require him to do that. The devout young Christians in Saved are depicted as narrow-minded and judgmental toward a girl who gets pregnant because she believes Jesus wants her to save a boy from being homosexual. The girl's mother, meanwhile, has an affair with the school's charismatic young pastor. Culkin says he does not consider the film anti-Christian, though. He defines faith as "staying true to who you are and what you believe in as opposed to being caught up in" Christian zealotry. (See Earlier Article on Saved) [AP]

...The Unborn Child Pain Awareness Act recently introduced in Congress is a victory for the Christian Medical & Dental Associations. CMDA president Dr. David Stevens says the legislation would require that women be informed about the pain their unborn child will experience during the abortion process. It also requires they be given the option of anesthetizing their child before it is dismembered. Stevens feels this is only humane. "If we were experimenting on dogs without anesthesia, we would lose our ability to do those experimentations," he says. "And yet doctors routinely across this country abort babies and literally rip them limb from limb without any anesthesia." Dr. Stevens asks if animals are treated humanely, why can't the same be done for the unborn child? [Bill Fancher]

...A Texas pastor says it's better to create embarrassment or even problems at home for someone than to allow them to destroy themselves with pornography. Some unsuspecting patrons of an adult business in the Fort Worth suburb of Kennedale have had some explaining to do at home. That's because they received postcards in the mail featuring a picture of their license plate, taken while they were parked at a pornography shop. The pictures are taken and mailed by Pastor Jim Norwood in his campaign to rid his community of adult-oriented businesses. The card also includes an invitation to his church, Oakcrest Family, a Southern Baptist congregation. Norwood says he got the idea by talking to sex offenders at a local jail, where he serves as a chaplain. He says he was told that intervention -- "somebody finding out what was going on and holding people accountable" -- was the best way to address the problem. "I came up with the idea of using a digital camera to take photographs of the license plates and sending a card to the home that would invite them to church, invite them to possibly, if they wanted to, seek out counseling for the problems that they were having," the pastor explains. Norwood was also elected the town's mayor on May 21 in a landslide victory. [Rusty Pugh]

...The American Civil Liberties Union wants to take religion out of the Los Angeles County Seal. The seal, designed by late supervisor Kenneth Hahn, contains a tiny cross -- symbolic of the Catholic missions that are so much a part of the county's history. According to the Los Angeles Times, ACLU executive director Ramona Ripstion has written a letter to the county supervisors, telling them the cross is unconstitutional and that they have two weeks to do something about it -- or they will be sued. Last February, city officials in Redlands, California, capitulated to a similar demand and removed a cross from its city seal after also being threatened by the ACLU with a lawsuit. [Sherrie Black]

...The head of the Samaritan's Purse ministry says he welcomes the agreement signed by Sudan's Islamic government and a largely Christian group in the southern Sudan. But Franklin Graham is also expressing concern over the sincerity of the government's intentions. Graham says he has reasons to be cautious in the wake of a meeting he had last December with Sudan's president. Graham says that when he described his Samaritan's Purse ministry's hospital in southern Sudan, the president laughed about having bombed it. "When I met with the man, I told him a little bit about our work that we were doing in the south and the history of our work in the south and his country, and that we had a medical work -- it wasn't related to politics, but we were just helping the people of the Sudan," Graham says. "And he turned to one of his aides, and he said: 'Oh, isn't that the hospital we bombed?' And when he said that, he laughed -- and they did; they bombed it on seven separate occasions." Graham says Sudan's Arab Muslim leaders, who he accuses of engaging in genocide against black tribes in western Sudan, have tried to stamp out Christianity, but the faith continues to spread in the midst of that persecution. [Fred Jackson/AP]

...A Christian member of the Mississippi National Guard said he had to pray about his decision to re-enlist in the military because he knew it would affect his ministry at church. But he found out God had a new ministry ready for him. Staff Sergeant Geoff Wagner recently shipped out for his annual training as a military police officer. Wagner joined the National Guard last year, despite the fact that he was an associate pastor at his church. "I had to pray about it. I've been involved in children's ministry for seven years [and] I knew if I got back into the military again it would take away from that particular ministry," he shares. "But I knew that the military is a mission field for me." Wagner says when he got to his unit, he discovered there were many other Christians there who needed him. "God has used me to help disciple and help bring people back into the Word of God, to reconcile relationships with fellow soldiers and letting them know that they are a Christian and want to change their live and do right." Wagner says one young soldier told him that he had been in the Guard for three years and it was the first time anyone had talked to him about God. (See Earlier Article) [Chad Groening]

...A member of the Blue Dog Coalition of congressional Democrats says even though he is a target of Republican redistricting, he intends to win re-election in his new district. Charles Stenholm was first elected to Congress in 1978. He is now the 29th most senior member of the U.S. House, and the ranking Democrat on the House Agriculture Committee. The thirteen-term Texas lawmaker says House Majority Leader Tom DeLay -- also from Texas -- has target him for elimination by putting him into a heavily Republican district with mostly new constituents. "They just gave me two-thirds brand-new ones," the congressman explains, "but I have become accustomed to winning in districts that vote Republican in every race other than my own -- and all we can say to the people of the 19th District is take a look at our record [and] at the independent voice that we've been for West Texas." Stenholm must beat a Republican incumbent congressman in his new district. "We were paired with an incumbent, Randy Neugebauer, who took [the House seat] in a special election last May. So it's going to be a challenging November, but we've got a good Christian attitude -- bring him on." As a consequence of redistricting, Stenholm's ranch is now in the 13th District -- so Stenholm could have chosen to run against another Republican incumbent, Mac Thornberry. [Chad Groening]

...It appears the liberal talk-radio experiment known as Air America has run into some severe turbulence. Have you heard the news? Chances are you've not. It only took two weeks for Air America to lose two of the largest markets in the country. Top management has fled. But major news outlets that trumpeted the network's launch have been curiously silent about its demise. Tim Graham with the Media Research Center offers Family News In Focus his thoughts on the media's silence. "I think the reason they're not publicizing the demise as we see it happening is that they're hoping it's not really going under," the media analyst says. "If you're rooting for this effort, you think that reporting on the demise is helping the demise happen." Among the offenders: ABC, NBC, and the New York Times. Details of the lack of coverage are documented on MRC's website. [FNIF]

...A noise-ordinance change that lets mosques in a Detroit suburb broadcast calls to prayer on loudspeakers will be put to a citywide vote after opponents gathered hundreds of petition signatures. The more than 630 signatures submitted to the city clerk were enough to force the Hamtramck City Council to either rescind the amended ordinance or put it to a vote. The council refused to rescind it, so it will be on the ballot on a date to be determined. In the meantime, mosques can broadcast their calls to prayer starting today. The issue has divided the blue-collar city of 23,000, which once was overwhelmingly Polish and Roman Catholic but now has a sizable Muslim population. [AP]

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