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. 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.

...The United Church of Christ's rule-making body has overwhelmingly passed a resolution endorsing same-sex marriage. It is the largest Christian denomination to do so. Roughly 80 percent of the members of the church's General Synod voted to approve the resolution. The vote is not binding on individual churches, but it could cause some churches to leave the fold. The committee rejected an alternative resolution defining marriage as between one man and one woman. A small group of conservative congregations had proposed that amendment, and suggested that approval of homosexual marriage could lead to the church's collapse. Traditionally strong in New England, the liberal denomination of 1.3-million members has long been supportive of homosexuals. In the early 1970s, the United Church of Christ became the first major Christian body to ordain an openly homosexual minister. Twenty years ago, it declared itself to be "open and affirming" of homosexuals. [AP]

..."Gay Pride Month" has come and gone this year. However, in its wake lies growing concern about the amount of taxpayer money that may be flowing to the homosexual groups that sponsor "gay pride" events. One homosexual rights group that tracks such things lists 54 U.S. events in June alone from Santa Fe, New Mexico, to Trenton, New Jersey, that received public money. In a Family News In Focus report, Peter LaBarbera of the Illinois Family Institute observes, "I think the homosexual organizations are so used to thinking of this as a civil rights issue that now they're just expecting state governments and city governments to treat this issue like a civil rights issue and fund it with taxpayer money." However, that is not the case across the board. A Florida County commission is refusing to support homosexual events with taxpayer dollars. But in Philadelphia, homosexuals get a quarter of a million dollars from state and city coffers for a weekend celebration of their lifestyle. [FNIF]

...The New York Times is reporting on a summer camp the newspaper describes as a "haven for the children of nonbelievers." Camp Quest, as it is known, claims to be the first summer camp in the U.S. for atheist, agnostic, and secular humanist children. Ironically, the Ohio campground the group is renting is owned by the YMCA, which -- as most people know -- stands for the Young Men's Christian Association. The Times relates the story of one of the campers who comes from Boone County, Kentucky. The report contends that at the public school the youth attends, he has learned to keep quiet about the fact that his family left a fundamentalist Christian church; that his dad is now an atheist; and that his mother, if she believes in God at all, does not do so in a conventional way. Camp Quest's longtime director is Edwin Kagin, who is also the head of the Kentucky Chapter of American Atheists. The New York Times notes that Kagin is also a certified Eagle Scout. [Fred Jackson]

...A proposed law would put stay-at-home parents on an equal tax footing with those who use day care. Nebraska Republican Lee Terry has introduced the Parents Tax Relief Act, and he says it will finally give the credit due to those parents who elect to forgo the benefits of a two-income family in order to stay at home and rear their children. "We need a more balanced social policy within our tax code that does help parents when they choose to stay home and be with their children," the lawmaker says. The proposed bill would give tax breaks to parents for expenses in staying at home to keep their kids, and would also double the personal tax exemption and remove the marriage penalty. Terry says stay-at-home parents' "financial sacrifices for their children" should be rewarded. [Bill Fancher]

...A new group of studies is providing more evidence of the negative impact of kids watching too much television. The results of three studies published in this month's archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine connect excessive television watching to poor academic performance. A report from Reuters News points to one example of children in third-grade whose parents provided them with televisions in their bedrooms and who therefore watched more TV. The result was that those children scored lower on standardized tests than those who did not have televisions in their bedrooms. Reuters quotes the American Academy of Pediatrics as urging parents to limit a child's television viewing to no more than one to two hours a day, and to try to keep younger children away from TV altogether. [Fred Jackson]

...Last month the University of Western Ontario (UWO) chose to ignore widespread protest and proceed with its scheduled conferral of an honorary doctor of laws degree on Canada's foremost abortion proponent. As some 300 protesters marched nearby, the university honored abortionist Henry Morgentaler during its spring convocation ceremonies on June 16. The university's plan to award the degree has generated great controversy from the time it was announced. In a March edition of the Western News, UWO noted that Morgentaler "founded the first abortion clinic in Montreal in 1968 and in the year that followed, he challenged the Criminal Code .... He has continued to campaign province-by-province seeking to provide abortion services .... Today, Morgentaler operates six clinics in Canada providing ... abortion and contraceptive services." Since the Western News report's release, thousands of students, faculty, alumni and Canadians-at-large have protested UWO's decision to give Morgentaler the honorary degree and have flooded the university's administrative offices with phone calls, e-mail and letters. By May 31, nearly 12,000 people had signed an online petition at www.uwoprotest.com, affirming their displeasure with the plan. Last month, ChristianWeek reported that costs to UWO from cancelled donations, bequests and other funding were estimated at around $50 million. [Jenni Parker]

...The king of Jordan has told Islamic scholars and clergy that Muslim extremists are to blame for "malicious" attacks against their religion by non-Muslims. King Abdullah told about 180 religious leaders from 40 countries that terrorists "generate turmoil and corruption on earth" by giving justification to non-Muslims to judge Islam according to acts that Islam, in fact, disavows. The king is seen as a key U.S. ally in the Middle East and a voice of moderation in a region plagued by violence. Islamists like Jordanian-born Abu Musab al-Zarqawi criticize Jordan for its close ties with the West, and Jordanian security forces have waged a fierce anti-terrorism campaign. Abdullah called on the gathering to help implement a Jordanian initiative launched in November -- dubbed the "Amman Message" -- urging Muslims to reject extremism, embrace moderation and tolerate other religions. [AP]

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