The Evangelical Alliance UK has released a report titled The Nature of Hell, which calls on schools, theological colleges, and churches to put a greater emphasis on the doctrine of hell. "Hell is more than mere annihilation at the point of death," the report says. "As well as separation from God, Hell involves severe punishment." Scripture depicts this punishment in various ways, using both psychological and physical terminology. Although this terminology is often metaphorical and we should be wary of inferring more details about Hell than scripture itself affords, Hell is a conscious experience of rejection and torment." (The Evangelical Alliance's press release is available online.)

That's the gist of a Chicago Sun-Times article that takes a very cursory look at the estimated 15,000 to 20,000 homeschoolers who entered college last fall. ""These students are not isolated here," Dan Crabtree, director of undergraduate admissions at Wheaton College, tells the paper. "They are socially mature. They are not shy, sheltering, negative types." For a much less patronizing article, check out The New York Times Magazine's February 27 article, " A Mighty Fortress | Abandoning the fight for a Christian America, fundamentalists are retreating into their own homes. But it's hard creating a world apart when the secular world keeps knocking." Homeschool proponents (particularly ones that aren't driven by fundamentalist separatism) won't agree with all of writer Margaret Talbot's conclusions, but at least there's some meat to disagree with.

Governors from 19 northern Nigerian states have announced they will ...