OUR COLUMNISTS Pray for Canada, Pray for U.S. Guest Commentary by Alan Sears Radical homosexual activists who demand public approval for their behavior have mounted another significant legal attack on the Dominion of Canada. If you think this has no effect on us here in the United States, think again. Canadian law influences us more than we realize. The Ultimate Question Commentary by David Sisler Philosophers frequently operate under the premise, it's not how good an answer you give, but how good is the question to which you are responding. In other words, what you are asked may be more important than how you answer. Sound Economic Thinking: Lest We Forget Commentary by Mark Creech Whenever any system of thought violates the tenets of God's Word, whether religious, political, or economic, it is destined to cause much harm.

...The head of the Coalition on Abortion/Breast Cancer is making some serious allegations against the U.S. government -- but claims they can all be documented. Coalition president Karen Malec spoke to the Association of American Physicians and surgeons Friday about the government's cover-up of the facts. She asserts that the National Cancer Institute (NCI) has for years deliberately distorted evidence that she says proves women who have had abortions have an increased risk of getting breast cancer. Malec says the NCI has lied about this evidence for years because they are attempting to manipulate public opinion. And the public health advocate says the NCI's motivation is money. "They get their funding from Congress, and there are abortion supporters in Congress that receive money for their campaigns from the abortion industry," she says. "So there's a lot of money that is behind this. There's a lot of money in the abortion industry -- we're talking billions or more." Malec says the abortion industry is big business with major political influence. And she contends that the NCI is tailoring and selectively reporting the results of flawed studies to get the outcomes it desires and to keep the abortion industry from looking bad. According to Malec, since 1971 the NCI's budget has ballooned from $150 million to $4.6 billion. Yet, she says, in the same time period cancer deaths have risen 30%. Malec says the NCI is a corrupt agency that is more concerned with politics than with the truth. [Rusty Pugh]

...In today's culture war, the liberal side is continually asking for tolerance regarding its views -- but seldom seems willing to demonstrate tolerance for the other side's ideas. Bob Knight of the Culture and Family Institute says the intolerance of the "tolerant mongers" is very evident when one compares vulgar television programming and the Ten Commandments. "The same folks out there who were telling parents 'just turn off the TV if you don't like it' are the same folks who are so offended by the Ten Commandments that they want to put them out of sight of anybody who happens to walk by," he says. Knight points out the obvious double standard. "In other words, sexual excess is fine -- but an acknowledgement of God and His place in the founding of our country is not." Knight wonders if Christians are told to deal with vulgarity by turning off the television, why can't those who object to the Ten Commandments simply not look at them? He says it is the same principle. [Bill Fancher]

...A conservative leader on Capitol Hill says there's one major aspect of the battle over the display of the Ten Commandments that has been overlooked. Howard Phillips of the Conservative Caucus says the battle over the Ten Commandments involved money -- and lots of it. "The folks from the Southern Poverty Law Center, Americans United for Separation of Church and State, People for the American Way -- not in this case, but generally -- and the ACLU are like cattle rustlers," Phillips says. "They're 'money rustlers.' They bring cases of this kind in order to gain taxpayer-subsidized court fees -- and they stand to make more than a million dollars from their assault on the Ten Commandments in Montgomery, Alabama." According to Phillips, there was more at stake in Montgomery than the so-called principle of "separation of church and state." Defenders of the Ten Commandments were funded totally with private monies. [Bill Fancher]

...Churches may be to blame for the downward slide of American culture. That's the opinion of Family Research Council president Tony Perkins. He believes the religious element of American society has to share the blame for the depravity that is running rampant throughout the nation's culture. "There's no doubt that we're seeing a cultural shift, [and] part of the 'anchor' that should be there -- the Church -- in many ways has contributed to the drifting," he says. According to Perkins, many churches have rejected the teachings of the Bible and embraced a secular worldview of life while the remaining churches kept quiet. Activists say both of those attitudes have contributed to the culture's decline. [Bill Fancher]

...When it comes to marriage, Rabbi David Niederman of New York says, "God has to be right." Niederman -- a leader of the nation's Hasidic Orthodox Jews -- joined other Jewish, Christian and Muslim leaders in the U.S. Capitol Wednesday. They urged Congress to pass a constitutional amendment that would define marriage as the union of a man and a woman and block courts from legalizing same-sex marriage. Several senators said they back a Federal Marriage Amendment. Rabbi Niederman says the Scriptures are clear that God created marriage as the basis for families, and people have no right to change it. [AP]

...With state and local elections just weeks away, and with the nation gearing up for national elections next year, many groups are hoping for a quick Supreme Court ruling on the Campaign Finance Reform bill. Candidates, activists, and organizations are all awaiting the decision over whether all or a portion of the bill is constitutional. The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments on the bill earlier this month. Valle Dutcher of the Southeastern Legal Foundation, who is one of the attorneys representing the 84 plaintiffs challenging the bill, is counting on a ruling soon. "We are hoping for a decision before the first of the year," she says, "and we are cautiously optimistic that we will receive at least some of the issues decided in our favor. In fact, that's what happened in the lower court [where] the decision was split." Right now, no one is sure just what can and cannot be done because the bill is written with multiple provisions, in case some are ruled to be unconstitutional. The situation is confusing -- so much so that a lower-court's three-judge panel recently reviewed the bill and came up with four decisions. [Bill Fancher]

...Democrats are attacking the Bush Administration, saying its policies have caused the huge budget deficits the nation is currently experiencing. But Republican Senator Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania points out that those "deficit critics" have apparently forgotten what they wanted just a few months ago. He says when it came to considering this year's appropriations bills and budget, these same Democrats "offered half-a-trillion dollars in new spending...at a time when we're facing these 'very high deficits.'" Santorum says the current fiscal problems are a result of fighting the war on terror and recuperating from the impact of the 9-11 terrorist attacks. [Bill Fancher]

...The American Civil Liberties Union is accusing Nebraska's prison system of showing favoritism toward Chuck Colson's Prison Fellowship Ministries. The ACLU says Prison Fellowship is being welcomed into Nebraska prisons and youth centers while other faith groups are being given little or no access to inmates. The ACLU's Amy Miller says it has no immediate plans to take legal action -- unless an inmate or inmate's relative would like to file a formal complaint. [AP]

...A federal court in Los Angeles has disbanded a chaplains program and the California Department of Forestry (CDF). The court deemed it was a violation of the First Amendment's Establishment Clause. According to Family News In Focus, a group of firefighters calling themselves the "Satanic Six" won the lawsuit but cost the CDF a popular and valued partner among the rank and file. A spokesman for the International Fellowship of Chaplains fears the CDF chaplains could be only the first to fall. The spokesman says the chaplains' organization knows that like Christianity at large, chaplains are "under attack" -- and that "most people see the chaplain as just another Christian entity." He quotes an FBI report as saying the average chaplain saves his department $86,000 a year through reduced outside professional counseling and employee time off. [FNIF]

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