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Crime and the courts:

• Burglars sell stolen stained-glass | Sixteen of the windows at Baltimore's St. Paul United Methodist Church have been pilfered for drug money (Associated Press)
• Bishops deny suicide on Kaiser anniversary | One year later, priest's death is still contentious (UN Integrated Regional Information Network)
• Judge: Alcoholics Anonymous conversations are 'religious communication' | Manslaughter conviction overturned because trial featured testimony—some obtained by subpoena—from AA members who said Cox had discussed memories of the stabbings (Associated Press)
• Churches to be offered insurance coverage for violence | Church Mutual Insurance Co. to start policies for shootings and bombings (Associated Press)
• Booze boos | A federal appeals court in Denver ruled last month that the state's confusing and restrictive liquor laws violate the First Amendment. But Utah's legislature and liquor commission are dominated by non-drinking Mormons, who say they have a mandate to protect the rights of non-drinkers (NPR's Morning Edition14.4 or 28.8 kbps)

Education:

• Religious, gay clubs allowed back on campus | Special-interest groups may meet during school hours in Capistrano district high schools (Los Angeles Times)
• Schools will allow distribution of religious material | Good News Club case invoked as district settles issue outside the courts (Desert Sun, Palm Springs, California)
• Center formed to defend students' religious freedom | Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) will serve as an online, print and in-person resource, and will provide a hot line as well as a network of lawyers (The Washington Times)
• Home Sweet School | The new home schoolers aren't hermits. They are diverse parents who are getting results—and putting the heat on public schools (Time)
• Christian schools should make advanced literacy a high priority | When a Christian settles for semi-literacy, or "functional" literacy, he says in effect that the words revealed through and by the Word aren't all that important. (Preston Jones, The Dallas Morning News)

Faith and medicine:

• Parents plead guilty in faith-healing death | Teen girl died because sect's beliefs barred seeking medical care (Rocky Mountain News, Denver)
• Judge: No more 'sincerity hearings' for religious objections to shots | Parents won't have to prove religious convictions (Religion News Service)

Missions and ministry:

• Priest to circus workers relishes road mission | The death of animal trainer Gunther Gebel-Williams brought Father Jerry Hogan's job to center ring (The New York Times)
• Missionary plane crashes in Indonesia | Mission Aviation Fellowship pilot, three passengers injured (Voice of America)
• Wrong place for conversion kick, Buddhists tell Sydney's Anglican Archbishop | Jensen says he had not intended to single out Wollongong's Buddhist community (The Sydney Morning Herald)
• Truck-stop ministry refuels souls | Because of the ministry's impact, some truckers have rearranged routes so they can return for services (The Tennessean)
• Changing mission | More storytelling, less sermonizing mark more sensitive approach to indigenous peoples (Dallas Morning News)
• For Christ's sake, why can't they evangelize? | How does one align approval of Christian church factions speaking out vigorously on such matters as international borrowing and lending, environmentalism, illegal immigrants, Aboriginal land rights, drug addiction, the status of women, taxation and foreign trade, with outrage over a Christian church leader's commending Christ to the attention of us all? (Frank Devine, The Australian)

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August (Web-only) 2001, Vol. 45