OUR COLUMNISTS African 'Aid' Not All It's Cracked Up to Be Commentary by Matt Friedeman Let's not give any more money to Africa -- regardless of what our Live8 rock stars are saying and the guilt they are trying to lay on us at the current G8 summit. Abortion Recall Commentary by Jane Jimenez You've probably carried more stories on product recalls than you can count: Ford Pinto, Viagra, Ephedra, Fen-Phen ... and more. Most recently, drugs manufactured by Able Laboratories are front-page news. What's next? Itching Ears Commentary by Brad Locke Failure is inextricably tied to self-esteem for many people, but those who don't fear failure are the ones who succeed most often. When nothing else can cause a person to re-examine his approach and fix it, failure will often do so. It is a great teacher. Amnesia Commentary by David Sisler What would it be like to wake up and not remember the evil that you had done, the people you had hurt, the sins you had committed? What would you pay for a little selective amnesia? Preaching a 'Celebrity Gospel' Commentary by Mark Creech A "celebrity gospel" is when a preacher compromises the gospel of Christ in order to achieve or sustain a celebrity status. Columnist Mark Creech offers two examples of preachers he says are proclaiming a celebrity gospel of late.

...Believers packed churches across London on Sunday to mourn the victims of last week's terrorist attacks and pray for peace and calm. The faithful streamed into St. Pancras Parish Church, where a memorial service was being held to remember the victims of Thursday's bombings, including 13 people killed just a few yards away when a bomb destroyed a double-decker bus. Memorial services also were held at St. Paul's Cathedral, where special prayers were offered and candles lit in honor of the victims. Britain's top religious leaders have issued a joint statement appealing to Muslims, Christians and Jews to unite in their condemnation of terrorism and their resolve to fight it. The statement was from the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster, the Moderator of the Free Churches, the Chief Rabbi, and the head of the Council of Mosques and Imams. Anglican Archbishop Rowan Williams urged Britons to resist the temptation to lash out at Muslims, calling it "a huge fallacy to suppose that one community is somehow more intrinsically prone to violence or outrage than any other." The religious leaders have pulled together in the past to deplore the 9/11 attacks and the March 2004 terrorist bombings in Madrid, Spain. In Washington, DC, meanwhile, there was an interfaith memorial service for the victims of the London bombings. National Cathedral Dean Samuel Lloyd led the service and likened the British to "extended family," adding that the bombings were therefore "especially shocking" for Americans. [AP]

...People of faith are calling attention to the displacement and genocide in the Darfur region of Sudan. In the Washington area, Christian leaders like Rev. Jim Wallis of Sojourners and Rev. Brian McLaren of Cedar Ridge Community Church as well as representatives of the Jewish and Muslim have been leading "Worship in the Spirit of Justice" services. They have been praying for God's mercy and justice in Darfur, calling for greater media attention, for more government action and for a greater commitment from worship communities to keep the poor and oppressed of Africa in their prayers, preaching and missions. In remarks prepared for a service Sunday at Lafayette Park near the White House, Wallis called on President Bush to see that genocide did not continue under his watch. And McLaren said since politicians are known for checking the direction of the wind, people of faith should see that that the wind is blowing in "a compassionate direction." [AP]

...Oklahoma Republican Senator Jim Inhofe believes liberals have gained a foothold with many religious groups through a single issue, and this observation has him concerned. He claims liberals have convinced some evangelical groups to support global warming initiatives in order to bring in new funding that the Left can spend on other causes. Also, Inhofe asserts, liberals are "trying to suck up some of the evangelical crowd and put them into the issue of global warming. And when they do that, they give up their litmus tests. They give up their positions on abortion, their positions on gay marriage, and all that." However, the Oklahoma senator contends that the theory of global warming is a scare tactic being played up by the Left and the national media and that a number of Christian groups have bought into it. "I'm afraid there's one large organization, the National Association of Evangelicals, who have fallen into this trap," Inhofe laments. Still, he says, "Fortunately, the vast majority understand what it really is." But as for the rest of the Christian community, Inhofe warns, any coalitions involving fundraising with liberals will only lead to problems and wind up helping fund advocacy for issues evangelicals oppose. [Bill Fancher]

...Bellevue Baptist Church in Memphis, Tennessee, has chosen a new senior pastor to replace Dr. Adrian Rogers, who retired last spring. After Dr. Steven Gaines preached at both morning services yesterday, Bellevue's congregation voted to accept him as their new leader. Gaines, who has a reputation as a strong conservative, is currently the pastor of First Baptist Church in Gardendale, Alabama, near Birmingham. He will deliver his first sermon as senior pastor of Bellevue on September 11. A recent Associated Press article notes that Gaines has been a guest preacher at Bellevue several times during the last year and that he was elected president of the pastors' conference at the Southern Baptist Convention in Indianapolis last year on Pastor Adrian Rogers' recommendation. [Fred Jackson]

...A conservative activist says even though the company Yahoo! has finally closed its online chat rooms that were being used by pedophiles, it would still be wise to keep an eye on the Internet giant. Family Research Council legal advisor Pat Trueman worked for a long time trying to close the Internet chat rooms hosted by Yahoo! and used by sexual deviants and child predators to share information or troll for young victims. "Yahoo! has been under criticism for many, many years," he says. "They refused to do anything about it, until the lawsuit was filed exposing them for just what they're doing." But even though the Internet company has pulled the plug on chat rooms created by users and has disabled a feature allowing users to create new ones, Yahoo! has left open many chat rooms launched by the company itself. And the Family Research Council advocate doubts that the California-based outfit, which relies heavily on online advertising for revenue, will stick by the decision to yank the chat rooms indefinitely. "I think Yahoo! will be right back," Trueman predicts, "having those chat rooms for whatever purpose anyone wants to set up, and they will deny -- falsely deny -- that they have any knowledge of what's going on." As one of the leading critics of Yahoo! chat rooms, Trueman was instrumental in getting legal attention focused on them. [Bill Fancher]

...A conservative Jewish activist says the U.S. military academies are being attacked by secularists determined to purge expressions of faith from the public square. From Barry Lynn of Americans United for the Separation of Church and State complaining about supposed overzealous proselytizing by Christians at the Air Force Academy, to Abraham Foxman of the Anti-Defamation League urging the Naval Academy to drop mealtime prayers, Don Feder of Jews Against Anti-Christian Defamation sees it a pattern. "I think there's a general trend -- I like to refer to it as the 'secular jihad' -- to purge religious manifestations from our public life," he says, "and it goes right across the spectrum. Whatever secularists can't get from the judiciary, and it's a lot, they try to coerce people into giving them." But Feder feels military academy students who cannot handle others' religious expressions may have a much bigger problem than their offended sensibilities. "If somebody can't tolerate this," he says, "then what's going to happen if he's captured by the enemy someday, and he has his fingernails pulled out? If someone is that overly sensitive, he probably shouldn't be in the service in the first place." The Air Force Academy was forced to launch an investigation because of the proselytizing complaints, and the Jews Against Anti-Christian Defamation spokesman says the investigators determined that "no one was coerced, but certain people felt uncomfortable." Yet the ADL and Americans United attacks on religious expression continue. "I don't see what the big deal is, quite frankly," Feder says. [Chad Groening]

...A resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank, says Americans are too wrapped up in their emotional issues and have forgotten how to deal with life's problems. Christina Hoff Sommers, who co-authored with Dr. Sally Satel the book One Nation Under Therapy (St. Martin's Press, 2005), challenges the "hyper-protective" attitude people have toward children, and says parents often treat their kids like hothouse flowers that will wilt at any hardship." But the truth, Sommers contends, is just the opposite. Human beings "tend to be strengthened through adversity," she says, which is not to suggest that parents should be harsh or cruel with their child. "We're not recommending anything of the kind," the author insists. "We're just saying they should not be protected from the normal, everyday sort of disappointments that come with being alive." Sommers also disputes the popular psychology notion that people should always express their emotions. "Traditionally people have been reticent and somewhat subdued about their feelings, and stoical," she says. "In fact, if you look at American tradition, stoicism and reticence are virtues." Yet in modern American culture, the author notes, "This is quite the reverse. So we looked at the data, and it just turned out that for many people -- not all, but I would say most -- repression is adaptive. It actually makes you happier to be less self absorbed [rather] than more." On the other hand, Sommers says their research showed that the more people are wrapped up in their feelings from moment to moment, the more likely they are to be depressed. [Mary Rettig]

...A new book celebrates the lives of a few modern-day Christian martyrs. In their book Lives Given, Not Taken, Eric Bridges and Jerry Rankin look at eight Southern Baptist missionaries who lost their lives in separate terrorist attacks in Yemen, the Philippines, and Iraq. Bridges feels the stories will encourage all Christians, but especially younger believers. "Young people want purpose," he says. "They're looking for purpose. We're living in a confused age, an age that seemingly has very little meaning for many; and young people in the Church and outside the Church are desperate for purpose." The modern martyrs in Lives Given, Not Taken had a purpose, the book's co-author says, "and they lived that purpose and followed it. It was God's purpose, to glorify Him among the nations." Through the book, Bridges says, "We wanted to celebrate their lives and not just talk about their deaths. Of course, their deaths are what they have in common. But another thing they had in common was just their servant's spirit, their joy in serving Christ -- and also, though they came from many different backgrounds, the commonality they shared in following the Lord." Eric Bridges is a senior writer for the International Missions Board, and Jerry Rankin is the president of the IMB. [Allie Martin]

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