OUR COLUMNISTS Religious Communities Hardly Score with TIME Commentary by Matt Friedeman You'd think that in trying to identify a hundred people who have had a positive influence in the world over the past year, that TIME Magazine could drum up a healthy list of those known for their relationship with God and service to those less fortunate. Think again. GOWYL (Get On With Your Life) Commentary by Jane Jimenez Much of the dialogue about marriage is focused on the problems of modern marriage. Is marriage doomed to failure ... even extinction? My 'Worthless' Job Commentary by Brad Locke Ever wonder why you are doing what you're doing? Not all of us are given lead roles. But God does not look down on the supporting actors, if you will, or think them less important than anyone else. The Gospel of Judas: A Betrayal of the Truth Commentary by Mark Creech It's being hailed as the greatest archaeological find in the last 60 years. But those who either promote or embrace extra-biblical revelation such as the Gospel of Judas betray the truth, even as the real Judas Himself did, and crucify the Son of God afresh.

...The leader of New Hampshire's Episcopal diocese remains the denomination's only openly homosexual bishop after three homosexual candidates in California failed to win election there. Delegates from the Episcopal Diocese of California gathered Saturday to pick their next bishop from a field of seven candidates, three of whom were homosexual. The diocese chose the Right Rev. Mark Handley Andrus of Birmingham, Alabama, who is married and has two college-age daughters. Associated Press says the election of another homosexual bishop could have inflamed tensions within the global Anglican Communion, where some leaders remain angry at the 2003 election of New Hampshire Bishop Gene Robinson. Meanwhile, across the country the search for a new bishop for the Episcopal Diocese of Tennessee will start anew after 203 delegates could not reach a consensus on four candidates Saturday. A spokesman for the diocese says it is unlikely a successor for retiring bishop, the Right Rev. Bertram Herlong, will be in place when he leaves in October. After 36 ballots, Rev. James Magness of the Diocese of Kentucky and Rev. Canon Neal Michell of the Diocese of Dallas had received the most votes. The search process took 18 months, and delegates failed to elect a candidate during two previous conventions in March. Delegates have said the divide reflects deep national disagreements over the future direction of the church and Robinson's 2003 consecration. [AP]

...The highest court in the United Methodist Church has refused to reconsider its earlier decision allowing a minister to deny a homosexual man church membership. In a 5-4 ruling last week the Judicial Council said there was no basis to revisit the case and that doing so would have further polarized the various parts of the church. Last October, the council, which is the denomination's top court, reinstated Rev. Ed Johnson after Virginia church leaders put him on involuntary leave as senior pastor of South Hill United Methodist Church. The Virginia leaders had said Johnson's actions violated the denomination's pledge of openness to anyone seeking Christ. But the church court said that pastors have the right to decide who joins their congregations. Several church groups appealed the decision, prompting Tuesday's ruling. Dissenting council members called the majority opinion "legally flawed" and "imprudent," saying there was no basis in Christian theology or in the church's disciplinary rules allowing a pastor to deny membership to anyone. "Determining who is eligible for life in the church is not the vocation of the pastor," they wrote. "It is the Holy Spirit who makes us members of the church." [AP]

...Perhaps the most liberal circuit court of appeals in the United States has tossed out a challenge to the federal Defense of Marriage ACT (DOMA). The San Francisco-based Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled on Friday (May 5) that two homosexual men did not have legal standing to challenge the federal DOMA because no state has determined the two are "married." But were they to change their residence to Massachusetts, the court stated, "their situation might change." Massachusetts is the only state in the country that legally recognizes same-sex marriage. The two men, Arthur Smelt and Christopher Hammer, also challenged California's marriage laws, but the court abstained from addressing those claims because the state law challenge is currently pending in California state courts. And because the state has always regulated marriage, the Ninth Circuit deferred to the state. Mat Staver of Liberty Counsel, which defended the case on behalf of Sacramento-based Campaign for Children and Families, says the Ninth Circuit did the right thing. "The federal courts should defer to state courts, and the state courts should defer to state legislatures," says Staver. "The people -- not the courts -- should determine marriage policy." And neither should same-sex couples be permitted to redefine marriage, Staver adds. "Same-sex advocates want same-sex marriage not to get married but to radically redefine marriage and upset the culture," he says, pointing to statistics that show very few same-sex couples are "rushing to the altar" in jurisdictions that have adopted same-sex marriage. "Same-sex marriage would drastically alter our society and hurt children," says Staver. And for that reason, the attorney adds, the push must continue for a federal marriage protection amendment. [Jody Brown]

...Defenders of abstinence programs are attacking a new study that says such programs don't work. A new study from Harvard University is reporting that abstinence pledges do not work because most teens break them within a year. But Dr. Janice Crouse of the Beverly LaHaye Institute says the report is suspect, based on its makeup and the methods used to gather data. She says the statistics are based on ten-year-old information, and trends have changed greatly since abstinence programs were established. "All the trends are turning in ways that have all the experts just kind of shaking their heads, because they said that this was impossible, that these trends were so firmly entrenched that there was no way to turn them around," she shares. "And yet, after abstinence programs have become more widespread, suddenly we're seeing changes in behavioral patterns that people said couldn't be changed." Crouse calls the report just another typical liberal attack on abstinence programs. "Every single time you start looking at the fine print and you find that there's not really a problem there," she says. "In this particular case, the Harvard study is based on data that's over ten years old. Then, the report relies completely on students' responses, and those are notoriously unreliable -- and they even point that out." Crouse notes that both teen pregnancies and teen abortions are down -- "and evidence indicates these trends are related to increased abstinence among teens," she says. [Bill Fancher]

...While a majority of Americans claim to be familiar with the 1973 Supreme Court abortion decision Roe v. Wade, a new survey shows that is far from the case. A group called "The REAL Women's Voices Project" has conducted a survey of Americans' understanding of the decision that legalized abortion on demand in the U.S. Marjorie Dannenfelser says the survey showed that 65 percent of the people claim familiarity with the law. "Then, when asked to identify the sentence that most closely reflects what Roe v. Wade is, only 29 percent were able to identify that correctly," she says. Dannenfelser explains that most people do not realize the Roe only bars states from banning abortions. "They think that [Roe] just made it legal. So, therefore, NOW and NARAL and all the abortion advocates try to keep that going, because they want people to think that if Roe v. Wade is overturned there are no abortions available in this country at all -- and that is simply not true." She points out that if the Roe were overturned, it would then be up to the individual states to decide the legality of abortion. The REAL Women's Voices Project is an arm of the Susan B. Anthony List, a pro-life group based in Alexandria, Virginia. [Bill Fancher]

...An immigration reform activist who lives a thousand feet from the Mexican border believes the Minutemen will not be able to build private fences along the border without government permission. Glenn Spencer, president of American Border Patrol, says he admires the Minutemen Civil Defense Corps for its plans to build security fencing on private property adjacent to the U.S.-Mexico border. But he predicts the group will never be able to do it. "I live on the border. I called the Planning Department and I said, 'I want to put up this fence,' and they laughed at me," Spencer shares. "They said the biggest fence you can put up without a permit is six feet -- and then they said they're going to have a 70-foot wide road. The most dirt you can move anywhere, without a permit, is an acre." And Spencer says the Minutemen can expect formidable opposition from the Southern Poverty Law Center, which has already labeled his organization a hate group. "[Co-founder] Morris Dees and the Southern Poverty Law Center are going after the Minutemen for improperly raising funds [to build fences]," Spencer says. "Do you know how much money his Southern Poverty Law Center has in the bank? About 130 million dollars. And they have lawyers right here in Cochise County [Arizona] watching everything we do." The American Border Patrol spokesman says the Minutemen -- which he admits to supporting -- will never be able to build fences without government permission. And they will never get it, he adds. [Chad Groening]

...A Messianic Jewish believer thinks Israel and the United States have something very much in common: a large number of foreign occupiers who believe the land belongs to them. Jan Markell is founder of Olive Tree Ministries in Minnesota. She shares that she watched the recent mass demonstrations by illegal immigrants and their supporters in major U.S. cities -- and believes they have the same desire as Palestinians living in Israel. "The Palestinians claim that their land has been stolen by the Israelis. But it was not stolen -- God gave them that land generations ago," says Markell. "And yet Palestinians are claiming that they've been disinherited and the land taken away from them." The ministry leader sees a parallel. "Now we have a lot of Mexicans saying [they] are going to reoccupy America -- at least the southwest part of America. [They are saying] 'We are going to take it over again because it was rightfully ours, and you stole it from us.'" Markell says just as the Israeli government seems willing to give away God's covenant land to the Palestinians, U.S. politicians seem more interested in getting the Hispanic vote than in acting in the best interests of American citizens. "America's politicians do seem to want to cater to this particular class of people," she says. [Chad Groening]

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