OUR COLUMNISTS What If the Supreme Court Isn't to Blame for Its Lack of Moral Clarity? Commentary by Matt Friedeman A Church that wants the Ten Commandments freely displayed on public grounds should perhaps also be a Church that has those imperatives written across her heart and memory and, more to the point, her practice. Love Affair With Failure Commentary by Jane Jimenez PBS producers have tremendous power to teach children and parents. So where do they put their energies? 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? The Ultimate End of Progressive Thought: Injustice Commentary by Mark Creech Progressives or liberals have essentially identified justice with material equality. Thus, a "just" society is one where wealth is equally distributed and everyone has access to life's basic needs. This approach, however desirable it may be, cannot possibly be defined as justice.

...As predicted over the past several months, a spot on the U.S. Supreme Court has come open -- but it wasn't Chief Justice William Rehnquist who has stepped down. Associate Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, who has been a swing vote on issues such as abortion and homosexual rights, submitted her letter of resignation to President Bush on Friday morning. The 75-year-old justice, one of two women on the high court, was appointed in 1981 by then President Ronald Reagan. She says she plans to leave before the next term of the Supreme Court opens in October. It is the first vacancy in 11 years and marks the first opportunity for President Bush to nominate a justice. The recent focus had been on the possible resignation of Rehnquist, who is battling thyroid cancer -- but so far, he remains. [Jody Brown]

...A conservative leader says one of the Ten Commandments decisions by the Supreme Court this week provides further evidence of why Christians should be concerned about the attitude of the nation's courts. Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council says the dissenting opinion in the Kentucky case clearly laid out the problem many people have with the current high court. "Justice Scalia underscored that there is not neutrality toward religion in this court, but hostility." Justice Scalia is not the only one to recognize this hostility against religion -- and more and more Americans are coming to agree with Scalia's conclusions. Perkins contends it reinforces what many people have been saying for a long time. "[T]hese decisions [on the Ten Commandments were] very closely decided," he notes, "but it underscores the importance of the balance of the court and potential nominations that will be made to the court." Perkins promises his organization and others will be keeping a close eye on what transpires when the first vacancy comes up on the Supreme Court. [Bill Fancher]

...Spain's powerful Catholic Church is issuing veiled calls for defiance after parliament legalized homosexual "marriage" on Thursday. The church, which had considerable clout in Spain just a generation ago when dictator Francisco Franco was in power, was left smarting from the vote. The Spanish Bishop's Conference issued a statement after the vote saying: "Marriage, understood as the union of a man and a woman, is no longer provided for in our laws." The bishops also bemoaned passage of a bill making it easier for Spaniards to divorce. Their statement called for opposing what they call "these unfair laws" through "all legitimate means." The conference had hinted last month that town hall officials who oppose same-sex marriage should refuse to preside over such ceremonies. Some 80 percent of Spaniards consider themselves Catholic. But polls say nearly half the country's Catholics rarely go to Mass, and a third say they are simply not religious. Spain became the third country to legalize homosexual marriage, following Belgium and the Netherlands. The Canadian House of Commons approved same-sex marriage on Tuesday, and the Senate is expected to approve it later this summer. [AP]

...In California, a college student says a mention of God in an assignment paper she wrote resulted in her getting an "F" from her atheist instructor. Bethany Hauf is a freshman at Victor Valley Community College near San Bernardino. According to a report from WorldNetDaily, Hauf recently wrote a paper titled "In God We Trust," which examined the role of religion in government. The paper mentioned the word "God" 41 times. Hauf, a 34-year-old mother of four, admits she did that after being told by her English instructor, Michael Shefchik, no to do so. She says Shefchik told her it would offend others in the class, and that she might as well be writing about the Easter bunny. Hauf is now demanding an apology from the school and a re-grading of her ten-page report. As she puts it, "I don't lose my First Amendment rights when I walk into that college." WorldNetDaily quotes college spokesman Bill Greulich, who says there are two rights in conflict here: the right to believe in what you believe, and academic freedom. He says they are still investigating the matter and that "appropriate steps" will be taken. [Fred Jackson]

...The county commission in Barrow County, Georgia, has yet to take action regarding the display of the Ten Commandments in a breezeway in the country courthouse. After an hour-long meeting in executive session on Thursday, the commission chairman said their attorney advised them to wait until a pretrial hearing next month on an American Civil Liberties Union request to have the display removed. The interest in the Barrow County suit grew earlier this week when the U.S. Supreme Court -- in a pair of 5-to-4 rulings -- allowed the Ten Commandments to be displayed outside the Texas state Capitol, but not inside courthouses in Kentucky. Rev. Jody Hice, president of the advocacy group Ten Commandments - Georgia and pastor of Bethlehem First Baptist Church, said his group was anticipating some decision from the commission. But he said he accepted the decision to wait, considering the ambiguous nature of the Supreme Court ruling. [AP]

...North Carolina judges are refusing a request by several Muslim organizations that want changes in the courtroom process. The Muslims want to replace the Bible with the Koran when a member of the Islamic faith is sworn in to give testimony. Judges in the Tar Heel state have refused -- and North Carolina Republican Representative Walter Jones likes that response. "I think this [request] is absolutely unacceptable," Jones says, "and I will encourage my friends who are judges in North Carolina -- and I'm sure they'll do this without my encouragement -- to resist any effort to allow the Koran to replace the Bible. It is absolutely unacceptable." The Muslim groups are expected to persist in their effort to replace the Bible. [Bill Fancher]

...A public-interest law firm says a Louisiana hospital is being sued for unlawfully firing a nurse because she refused to compromise her religious beliefs. Attorneys with the Alliance Defense Fund have filed suit against St. Tammany Parish Hospital for terminating the employment of nurse Toni Lemly, who refused to administer the "morning-after" abortion pill because of her religious beliefs. ADF attorney Mike Johnson says the hospital is violating Louisiana's employment discrimination law. "To force a nurse to participate in the termination of human life runs counter to her training and her mission and her desire to help and heal people and to preserve human life," the attorney says. "It also runs counter to the Hippocratic Oath -- and that's why we think these cases are so important. People's deeply held religious beliefs have to be respected by employers." Johnson says Lemly offered a number of reasonable suggestions to the hospital that would enable the facility to continue administering the abortion pill while still allowing her to abstain -- but the hospital, he adds, chose not to act on any of her suggestions. [Rusty Pugh]

...An official with the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) says parents need to be sure they are raising their children according to biblical principles. In their new book Parenting with Kingdom Purpose, Ken Hemphill and Richard Ross encourage parents to live out their Christian faith in holiness and obedience to God. Hemphill says overall, Christian parents are searching for tools to help them raise their families according to God's plan. "I think they've been looking for some techniques, some examples, some models. So that's what we've tried to do in this book -- it's not just kind of another sermonic book about what we know we should do; there's some ideas [in the book]." Among the suggestions are a Christian bar mitzvah or bath mitzvah. "Who's ever heard of that?" Hemphill asks. "When your child turns 13 or whatever, take them out [to] dinner, invite friends in, tell them about what your faith means to you." Also suggested is a commitment service for a child going into the first grade. "So many times, kids go to school and they divorce what they learn in school from what they learn in Sunday school," he notes. Hemphill is national strategist for the Empowering Kingdom Growth Initiative in the SBC. [Allie Martin]

...An Indianapolis-based ministry provides childcare, playtime, and a biblical message for children whose parents attend Christian conferences and meetings. For the past six years, Children's Conferences International (CCI) has provided biblically based programming to small and large Christian events. Recently, CCI was in Nashville, entertaining hundreds of children as their parents were attending the annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention. This year children were part of a western-themed program titled "Frontiers of Faith: A New Horizon." The program featured skits, games, and audience participation. Stephen Leckeby helps organize the conferences, and he also plays the character known as "Frontier Frank." He explains how the program is structured. "They'll spend time with a small groups of 15 to 20 children working on different projects," he says, "and the entire group will join together in some large-group sessions and go through a series of different dramas and skits." Leckeby says children attending the conference not only have fun, but learn biblical truths. CCI is planning a mission trip to Guatemala in December. [Allie Martin]

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