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. Medically Accurate Cowards Commentary by Jane Jimenez Trojan brought condom ads to mainstream television last month. One hopes next month they will buy a little more time to offer Americans the medically accurate truth about condoms. 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.

...The Regent University School of Education's Christian School Program has been approved by the world's largest Christian school accrediting body, the Association of Christian Schools International. The Colorado Springs, Colorado-based accrediting organization seeks to equip Christian educators and schools worldwide with the tools to instruct children and youth according to the life and mind of Christ. Regent's Christian School Program offers a master's degree with emphasis in leadership, curriculum development, teaching, cross-cultural, and at-risk populations, and also a doctoral degree with emphasis in leadership. The program began after Regent School of Education professor Dr. William Cox felt led to begin fostering Christian education, observing that it was virtually absent from university teacher training curricula. Cox implemented the Christian education master's program in 1997, and followed that with a doctoral program in the fall of 2000. [Jenni Parker]

...Delegates to the Anglican Church of Australia have elected Brisbane's Archbishop Phillip Aspinall as their new provincial leader. Aspinall has not taken a public stand in the debate over homosexuality that is tearing Anglicanism apart. In last week's election, he defeated Archbishop Peter Jensen of Sydney, who has condemned the election of a homosexual bishop in the Episcopal Church USA and the acceptance of same-sex blessing ceremonies in the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church of Canada. The Anglican Church of Kenya, meanwhile, has reaffirmed its decision to break ties with the Episcopal Church. [AP]

...The "Connecticut Six," a group of Episcopal churches that has been at odds with their diocesan bishop over his abandonment of Anglican Church teachings, have respectfully but firmly placed limits on his recently scheduled official visits to their congregations. In a recent letter delivered to Bishop Andrew Smith, the six churches informed their bishop that, although he would be welcomed at any time, their clergy and members feel it would be inappropriate for him to preach or preside at the Eucharist -- Anglicans' term for the sacrament of Holy Communion. Citing Smith's repeated public attacks against them, the church leaders stated in the letter that the bishop has engendered "an atmosphere of hostility and mistrust" that makes a shared Eucharist impossible. The conflict in the Diocese of Connecticut is rooted in a communion-wide crisis in Anglicanism, centered on differing views on homosexual issues, church order, and biblical authority. The Connecticut Six charge that Bishop Smith has violated his ordination vows by departing from traditional Anglican teaching, scriptural authority and biblical norms. Meanwhile Smith has charged the churches with "abandoning the communion of the church." However, the principled stance of the six churches has been recognized by Primates of the Anglican Communion and the Archbishop of Canterbury as an expression of faithfulness rather than rebellion. [Jenni Parker]

...Canadian evangelicals and the nation's most prominent Roman Catholic clergyman say same-sex "marriage" is threatening Christians' religious freedom. Quebec Cardinal Marc Ouellet told a Canadian Senate committee that priests are wary of preaching the church's teachings from the pulpit for fear of being branded as "homophobes." Janet Epp Buckingham of the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada says, "There's a tremendous amount of concern and fear in our community -- feelings that we are being targeted and marginalized." Cardinal Ouellet said homosexual couples arrive to have their children baptized, expecting to be recognized as two fathers or two mothers -- something the church cannot do. [AP]

...A Senate subcommittee recently heard information on four new methods for creating embryonic stem cell lines for research without harming the human embryo. Dr. James Battey of the National Institutes of Health spoke about one possible source, noting, "During the in vitro fertilization process, a number of the embryos stop dividing, and are therefore unsuitable for implantation and are referred to as dead embryos." However, Robert Lanza of Advanced Cell Technology had reservations about Dr. Battey's suggestion. Lanza pointed out, "I've seen numerous human embryos stop dividing, fooling the embryologist into thinking they are dead. Then, after a resting period, they go on to generate blastocysts." The Advanced Cell Technology spokesman went on to advise the Senate subcommittee of another method he believes holds great promise -- a process called de-differentiation. "This is an exciting concept," he explained. "It involves taking an adult cell and reprogramming it back into pluripotent stem cells. We and other groups have already generated some exciting data on this, but it's still very preliminary and requires further research. This approach has few if any ethical objections." Lanza says the de-differentiation process will require an additional fifteen to twenty million dollars in research funding before it can replace current stem-cell extraction methods, which always kill the human embryo. [Bill Fancher]

...A Kansas lawmaker says his recent visit to the Guantanamo Bay detention facility in Cuba allowed him to see first-hand that the prisoners being held there are being well fed and receiving excellent medical care. As a member of the House Armed Services Committee, Republican Jim Ryun was part of a recent bi-partisan delegation that inspected the military prison. Ryun was impressed with what he saw. "We had the opportunity to not only tour the facilities but eat a detainee lunch," he says. "We observed some interrogation, and I came away with the strong feeling that we're doing very, very well in terms of the way we're taking care of the prisoners that are there, the enemy combatants." The congressman from Kansas believes the recent criticism of the facility by prominent people like Senator Dick Durbin has not been helpful. "I actually asked some of our personnel ... down there what their thoughts were after hearing some of the statements by Senator Durbin and others," Ryun says. "And their response was, 'They need to come and see.' [The military personnel expressed] a little bit of discouragement, but they know the quality job that they're performing and that it's important." After touring the Guantanamo Bay detention facility, Ryun says he is more confident than ever that the operations there are necessary and are being conducted humanely. [Chad Groening]

...Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim Al-Jaafari announced earlier this week that U.S. and coalition forces in Iraq could begin handing over security to the Iraqis in some cities. Geoff Wagner, an American non-commissioned officer who has been working to help train the Iraqis, says he is confident the native security forces will be ready when the time comes for them to take over. Wagner, a staff sergeant in the Mississippi National Guard, notes that even though the Iraqis are not ready for the complete responsibility of defending their country, security has improved in a number of provinces to the point where the Iraqis could take on the burden of maintaining order. Wagner says the Iraqis are quick learners and in many areas are already "performing their own responsibilities and their own jobs without our assistance." The U.S. soldier says the Iraqi trainees are also taking their own prisoners in and "processing those detainees in a timely manner as well as a non-abusive manner, and we've been responsible for putting a lot of bad guys away." Now, he adds, the U.S. military trainers are "just looking for the opportunity for [the Iraqi trainees] to stand up and say 'Yes, we want this job, we want this area of operation. Turn it over to us and we'll take care of it.'" [Chad Groening]

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