OUR COLUMNISTS Democracy's Delusion? Commentary by Joe Murray It is time for the yearly ritual where the elected branches of the federal government abdicate their authority to the unelected "men in black" sitting on the Supreme Court. Sacrificing Truth for Love Commentary by Jane Jimenez Modern pundits despair when people make statements claiming an absolute truth. They have forgotten the wisdom of the ages .... Truth endures for the very reason that it does not tolerate untruths. True Devotion Commentary by Brad Locke Living in the Bible belt, I'm well aware of how people treat church like a social club. To treat a sporting event in such a way is disrespectful -- but to treat corporate worship that way is unconscionable. A Father's Influence Extends to Generations Commentary by Mark Creech There's no escaping it. Dads either build a place of blessing for their children, or they build a prison. They either grow weeds -- or roses.

...The leader of the world's feuding Anglicans is urging them to work toward a structure for co-existing despite differences on the roles of women and homosexuals and over the authority of the Bible. Archbishop Rowan Williams wrote to the Anglican Communion's 38 primates that "there is no way in which the Anglican Communion can remain unchanged by what is happening at the moment." His letter is called a "reflection." It follows last week's General Convention of the Episcopal Church, the U.S. branch of Anglicanism. Episcopalians rejected demands from conservatives in Africa and at home that they elect no more homosexual bishops. They voted instead to call for "restraint." Episcopalians also ruffled some Anglicans by electing a woman as their presiding bishop. [AP]

...Pro-homosexual forces have launched an all-out attack on the head of the U.S. Office of the Special Counsel. The office was created to protect whistleblowers, the military, and the merit system. As the newly appointed Special Counsel to the White House, one of Scott Bloch’s first acts was to depart from past federal administrative policies shielding employees from discrimination based on sexual orientation. Bloch’s explanation of his rationale for removing those protections for homosexuals from the federal guidelines has been that “sexual orientation isn’t protected from discrimination or hate crimes by current civil rights laws," and statutes protecting people from racial and gender discrimination do not apply to sexual orientation. Family Research Council (FRC) vice president Tom McClusky says Bloch does not deserve the flak he has been getting since he took office. According to McClusky, a number of career government employees have pointed out that the policy change -- to include homosexuals as a protected group -- was initiated by Bill Clinton and was illegal. "Scott Bloch reversed the policy back to the constitutionally and congressionally-ordered statutes," the FRC official says. "For his actions he has now been under fire from both Congressional and within the administration [critics] and from outside forces." However, the newly installed Special Counsel has been credited with cleaning up that office, McClusky asserts, and he says people should tell Congress and President Bush to leave Bloch alone. [Bill Fancher]

...On Tuesday the Senate fell one vote shy of passing an amendment to the U.S. Constitution that would have allowed Congress to prohibit desecration of the U.S. flag. According to a USA Today report, Republican Senator Orrin Hatch described the vote as "a setback" but not a final defeat. He and other supporters of the ban have vowed they will try again next year, after a new Congress is elected. The flag protection amendment has failed five times to get the two-thirds Senate vote required to turn the measure over to the states for ratification. Hatch claims this amendment is necessary to counteract the 1989 and 1990 Supreme Court decisions that struck down state and federal laws protecting the national symbol. He also cites polls showing public support and non-binding resolutions by legislatures in all 50 states endorsing the flag protection amendment. But a number of lawmakers are opposed to the measure and argue that such an amendment would infringe on free-speech rights. A narrowly-worded statutory ban also came up short as the Senate rejected alternative legislation that would have made it a crime to desecrate the U.S. flag under specific circumstances. [Jenni Parker]

...Ohio state prison officials have settled a federal lawsuit and will no longer allow prayers, religious music or proselytizing at secular events inside prisons. The Department of Rehabilitation and Correction also will not order inmates to attend religious programs and will stop holding employee training sessions in churches. The settlement is the result of a lawsuit by a northeast Ohio deputy warden who claimed the system's former director was promoting Christianity to inmates and prison employees. The former prison system director says the system did not promote Christianity over other religions and did nothing wrong. [AP]

...A Wyoming church seeking to build a neighborhood daycare center will take its case before the Supreme Court. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit has upheld a ruling from last year against Grace United Methodist Church in Cheyenne, compelling the church officials to appeal. In 2001, Grace UMC's proposal to operate a daycare in a residential neighborhood was rejected by the city of Cheyenne after opponents argued that the facility would create increased traffic noise in the area. The church's civil action alleged that the city, in denying the request, was violating the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA) and the First Amendment by imposing a substantial burden on the congregation's exercise of religion and by preventing the church members' free exercise of religion and free speech, and that the city's refusal violated Grace UMC's Fourteenth Amendment rights to due process and equal protection as well. The district court granted a summary judgment on the church's constitutional claims, ruling in favor of the city of Cheyenne, and a jury also found against the church under RLUIPA and the restrictive covenants. As a result, the district court issued a post-trial judgment enjoining the church from building and operating the daycare center. According to an Associated Press report, Grace UMC's Pastor Jon Laughlin claims the U.S. Court of Appeals ignored RLUIPA's provisions protecting religious institutions' rights. The congregation's legal representatives plan to argue before the Supreme Court that a church should be allowed to use its property as it chooses. [Jenni Parker]

...Pro-lifers are stunned by the case of Tammy Skinner, a Virginia woman who allegedly killed her own unborn baby with a pistol shot while it was still in the womb but who will not be prosecuted. This past week a judge threw out the charges against Skinner, saying she had not violated the law. Judie Brown of the American Life League says she is shocked. "In my opinion," the pro-life activist notes, "it's a sign of how little regard we have not only for mothers -- any mother, regardless of her situation -- but for children who are not yet born." According to Brown, the judge's ruling just proves that an unborn baby is of no significance under America's current laws. [Bill Fancher]

...A Christian pro-family advocate is linking youth violence to a godless, Darwinist worldview. Focus on the Family vice president Bill Maier says atheistic beliefs have led to an alarming increase in youth violence. Young people are more aggressive than ever, he asserts, with many participating in fight clubs and posting violent videos on the Internet. But that is what you get from Darwinist evolution, the Focus on the Family official contends. "If we have a prevailing worldview that teaches that, basically, human beings evolved from the slime and we have no intrinsic worth or value or meaning," he explains, "then naturally we are going to see individuals begin to gravitate toward behavior such as this. It's basically Darwin's 'survival of the fittest' concept carried to its logical conclusion." Maier says parents need to help kids learn to distinguish between necessary defense and excessive violence and can do this, in part, by limiting their children's exposure to media violence. [Natalie Harris]

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