Billy Graham To Miss Bush Inauguration
A shunt in evangelist Billy Graham's brain, implanted last summer and readjusted last month after it malfunctioned, is malfunctioning again. He's going back into the hospital to have it removed entirely, which means he'll have to miss giving the invocation at George Bush's presidential inauguration. "I consider it a great privilege to have been invited by President-elect Bush to participate in his inaugural ceremony," Graham said in a press release. "I love and respect his entire family very much, and regret that I am not able to join them for this special occasion." It would have been his ninth presidential inauguration, and the first he has missed since Jimmy Carter's. Neither the press release nor the Associated Press give any detail about what removing the shunt—inserted to relieve Graham's hydrocephalus—will mean for the evangelist's health, or if he will be undergoing alternative treatments.

Another look at Bush's religion "While Graham was the obvious first choice for his inaugural invocation, Bush's choice of preacher to deliver the benediction may say more about the role of religion in his administration," says the San Francisco Chronicle. The Rev. Kirbyjon Caldwell, an African-American preacher and businessman from Houston, has pioneered a "blend of private enterprise and tax-supported, faith-based charity [that] is the kind of social service program Bush hopes to encourage over the next four years." The article also quotes Bob Edgar and the Acton Institute's Robert Sirico about Bush's faith and faith-based initiative, as well as noting John Ashcroft's support of such "charitable choice" reforms. Meanwhile, Canada's Globe and Mail notes that one of Bush's key advisers ...