OUR COLUMNISTS Your Name is Mo! The Church's Finest Hour Commentary by Matt Friedeman Saints from Kansas, and Ohio, and Maryland, and Colorado, and ... well, from everywhere it seems ... are descending on the places hurt by Hurricane Katrina with healing hands and words of compassion. Audio-visual Christians, I have heard it described lately. Kiss, Kiss, I Love You Commentary by Jane Jimenez Summer is the time for true love to flourish. What better place to witness this than in the airport? Ejected for Jesus Commentary by Brad Locke Be careful about nodding your head, folks. It may get you run off. And be careful about affirming biblical truths. It may get you run off, or worse -- gasp! -- you might offend someone and be labeled intolerant and hateful. 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? North Carolina Enacts a State Lottery Commentary by Mark Creech The Tarheel State has now entered the gambling business' world of vice and deception. Mark Creech of the North Carolina-based Christian Action League says only a miracle in the courts could possibly change matters.

...A day after Hurricane Rita struck the Texas and Louisiana coast, worshipers have thanked God that it wasn't worse. At a Baptist church in Tyler, Texas, evacuees were treated like dignitaries and were invited to take communion. The pastor held up a broken tree branch and told worshipers, "The winds are going to blow, it says in the Bible, and we want you to be strong." In Houston, a priest thanked God that his church has electricity and that those attending Sunday Mass were unhurt. He then prayed for those in Louisiana and Texas who were harder hit. After Mass, one worshiper said she considers the hurricane a test of faith rather than an act of God. President Bush, after being briefed yesterday in Louisiana, said: "I know the people of this state have been through a lot. We ask for God's blessings on them and their families." [AP]

...A cultural analyst is pointing out the fact that, even if Judge John Roberts turns out to be a staunch pro-lifer, the chances of the U.S. Supreme Court reversing Roe v. Wade and outlawing abortion could still be a long way off. Ken Conner of the Center for a Just Society says should Judge Roberts be confirmed and turn out to be a true pro-lifer and should President George W. Bush nominate another pro-life judge to replace Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, that still will not necessarily give pro-life advocates what they have been fighting for. "Remember that we're still one vote away from reversal of Roe vs. Wade," the Center spokesman notes, "and we're still one vote away from any number of other course corrections that I think are really necessary on the court." Assuming Bush's current nominee is confirmed, Connor says, the high court to be will consist of five liberals, three conservatives (including Roberts), and the next nominee. [Bill Fancher]

...A pro-family activist doubts U.S. federal district judge Lawrence Karlton's controversial Pledge of Allegiance ruling will last very long. Karlton banned the recitation of the Pledge because it includes the phrase "under God, but Jan LaRue of Concerned Women for America feels it is unlikely to hold up under judicial review. "I think the latest ruling on the Pledge of Allegiance is so utterly without justification that it will have the shelf life of a Twinkie," she asserts. However, she adds that she does expect the judge's decision to make the rounds in the federal courts. "The Department of Justice will be appealing it to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals where we have little hope of prevailing," LaRue notes, "but it will eventually get up to the Supreme Court." Many feel the high court dodged the issue the last time the Pledge issue came before the justices, saying the plaintiff in the case, atheist Michael Newdow, had no standing to sue. That route will not be open to the U.S. Supreme Court this time around. [Bill Fancher]

...A Christian group says some stress-reduction classes for elementary school students promoted "New Age" religion and were unconstitutional in a public school. Called2Action says it received complaints from a mother whose children were asked to do breathing exercises, chant and use their "life forces" last month at Partnership Elementary School in Raleigh, North Carolina. The group has sent a letter to Wake County's school board and superintendent asking them to make sure this kind of "spiritual and religious program" does not happen again. [AP]

...Minuteman Project founder James Gilchrist says he is tired of the U.S. government failing to uphold the law of the land where illegal immigration is concerned, and he hopes voters in California's 48th Congressional District will send him to Washington, DC, to address the issue. When Republican Christopher Cox became chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission this summer, his seat in Congress became vacant for the first time in 17 years. Gilchrist hopes to win that seat in the special October 4 open primary. "Otherwise," he notes, "we go to December 6 for a general election with the top five vote-getters in the primary from the five parties that are represented -- Libertarian, Green Party, Independent Party, which I'm coming in under, Republicans, and Democrats." The overriding reason Gilchrist wants the job, he explains, is because "insofar as our immigration laws are concerned, Congress does not recognized them. But if we're to remain a nation governed by the rule of law, we have to have a universal application of those laws, not pick and choose which laws will be enforced and which will not depending on our whim at the time." Although the political establishment appears to be unhappy with his candidacy, the immigration reform advocate says he "expected this kind of discouragement by the powers that be" and sees it as a natural occurrence in the political sphere. Gilchrist contends, "Those who are opposed to me are also opposed to what the Minuteman Project essentially stands for -- an alternative to political corruption, dereliction of duty, and blatant and reckless disregard for the rule of law." [Chad Groening]

...The second Stand for Israel National Briefing gets under way tomorrow in Washington, DC. Stand for Israel director George Mamo says an impressive array of leaders, both from the U.S. and Israel, are scheduled to address the two-day briefing. The event will kick off with Ambassador Daniel Ayalon, Israel's ambassador to the United States. Also, Mamo notes, "We've got Senators [Rick] Santorum and [Sam] Brownback, Deputy Whip [Mike] Pence, Howard Kohr from AIPAC [American Israel Public Affairs Council]. We've got a terrorism expert who, everybody would recognize his name, but because of security we can't use it. And then we've got folks like Richard Land from the Southern Baptists and Ralph Reed and Gary Bauer." Stand for Israel is the outreach and education arm of the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, the group's director explains, "and what we're trying to do is reach out to all of those many Christians who support Israel but just don't know what to do." Mamo says tomorrow's national briefing in the U.S. capital is designed to provide much-needed guidance to pro-Israel attendees. [Bill Fancher]

...A foreign policy expert says while it is disturbing that a majority of South Koreans hold the U.S. responsible for the division on the Korean peninsula, he does not think it would be wise to pull American troops out of that country right now. Recently, a Korea Society Opinion Institute poll found that 53 percent of South Koreans hold the U.S. most responsible for the division, and more than 35 percent believe the U.S. is most opposed to reunification of the Korean Peninsula. Iian Berman, vice president for policy at the Washington, DC-based American Foreign Policy Council, believes the South Koreans' attitude is fueling U.S. opposition to keeping troops there, but he feels the U.S. forces should stay. "The North Korean and Iranian scenarios are very similar," Berman points out. "In both cases you're facing down either a newly nuclear or almost nuclear country that, if you change your military posture as a result of that country's activities, you send exactly the wrong message, which is, we cede regional leadership to you." Berman believes the Iranian regime is also realizing that possessing weapons of mass destruction can deter the U.S. from a pre-emptive strike. "It's a lesson that the Iraqis didn't learn," he notes, "and they're not around. And it's a lesson that the North Koreans have learned well. So for those undecided countries like Iran that are rapidly approaching that capability, it just reinforces to them the need to have these types of weapons so they can remain a regional player." Berman says America is discovering that "the real currency and the stock-in-trade of the security environment we see ourselves in now is if you have a robust enough weapons of mass destruction capability, you can in effect preempt American preemption." [Chad Groening]

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