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• Also: French abort law does Nazis proud | This is not about the rights of the handicapped. This is about society wishing to establish a right—by any means necessary—not to be burdened with caring for them. (Rod Dreher, New York Post)
• Changing conceptions | You'd be amazed at who thought what about life ethics and when and why. (The Washington Post)
• Bush 'agonizing' over funding of embryo research | President has become so absorbed in the subject that he has become almost preoccupied with it, say lawmakers and aides. (The Washington Post)

Family:

• Hard-hitting debate | Two parents think teachers need more disciplinary authority — something paddling would provide. (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)
• Also: Research shows that corporal punishment has undesirable effects on kids. (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)
• Constitutional marriage proposal | A coalition seeks a federal amendment defining wedlock as between a man and a woman only. (Los Angeles Times)
• Also: No way to save broken marriages (Editorial, The Seattle Times)
• Missouri governor signs ban on same-sex marriages | 35th state to adopt a "defense of marriage" law (St. Louis Post-Dispatch)

Crime:

• In court, a priest reveals a secret he carried for 12 years | A Roman Catholic priest, the Rev. Joseph Towle, testified that in 1989 a man, now dead, confessed to him that he had killed a man whom two friends were convicted of murdering. (The New York Times)
• Church bombing figure found to be incompetent | Bobby Frank Cherry won't stand trial for 1963 Birmingham murders. (The New York Times)
• Archbishop of Naples faces trial for fraud | Prosecutors recommend tax fraud and false accounting charges against Catholic leader. (The Times, London)

Church and state:

• Connecticut town officials irked by traffic to home prayer meeting | New Milford may challenge Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act as unconstitutionally restricting towns' zoning decisions. (Associated Press)
• U.S. servicewomen question Muslim dress requirement | Republican senators call for review of policy after complaint (Scripps Howard)
• A faith-based dilemma | Who's discriminating now? (Chuck Colson, Breakpoint)

Politics:

• Democrats criticize their own—and Bush | Centrists say party must welcome religious belief; president accused of lurching right (The Washington Post)
• Attendance, not affiliation, key to religious voters | Huge gaps separate the voting behavior of the more and less observant (Ronald Brownstein, Los Angeles Times)
• Texas Christian Coalition seen as a stronghold | Clout of national organization dwindles, but Texas seen as strongest of state organizations (Fort Worth Star-Telegram)

Persecution:

• U.S. aid chief arrives in Sudan | Andrew Natsios is the highest-ranking U.S. official to visit Khartoum since 1995. (Associated Press)
• Also: U.S. official begins talks with warring sides in Sudan (Knight Ridder)
• Group returns after buys Sudan freedom | American Anti-Slavery Group reportedly redeems 54,000. (Associated Press)
• Vatican appoints three bishops to Vietnam | Dealings have been tense over Hanoi's insistence that it have final say over religious appointments. (Radio Australia)
• Christians in Laos are forced to drink blood and renounce faith | Part of a widening crackdown on Church (The Daily Telegraph, London)

Church life:

• Being a wallflower at the religious dance | In Paonia, Colorado, 26 churches for 1,600 people means that competition for members is fierce—but the closest synagogue is 100 miles away. (Rebecca Clarren, The Denver Post)

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July (Web-only) 2001, Vol. 45