Lawmakers, don't stifle religious freedom | New York bill maintains that government shall decide what constitutes religion and what does not, what is Catholic and what is not (William Murphy, Newsday)
New point man for charities | Politics-savvy Towey picked by Bush to lead faith-based initiatives (The Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
Bush and funding of faith | The Senate bill is a useful first step toward Congress fine-tuning the constitutional boundary between church and state. (Editorial, The Christian Science Monitor)
Keeping the faith pays off | Senate faith-based initative compromise moves cautiously and does not go as far as some would like, but given the issues at stake, that's for the best. (Editorial, The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel)
Scholar says God being purged from history | A scholar who spent 18 years studying original manuscripts of the founding fathers says the federal government is actively revising American history, erasing the impact religion had on them and history. (The Clay Center Dispatch, Kansas)
GOP renews push on school choice | Many proposals floating around, Congressman urges proponents to rally around one (The Washington Times)
Science:
Unintelligible redesign | This is the way creationism ends. Not with a bang, but with a whimper. (William Saletan, Slate.com)
Bush panel mulls therapeutic cloning | The President's Council on Bioethics has abandoned any hope of consensus on the ethics of human cloning for the purpose of medical research and treatments, as members remain deeply divided over the moral status of a human embryo (Associated Press)
It's time to name Satan | There is no way to understand the horror of priestly pedophilia in the Archdiocese of Boston and elsewhere unless one accepts the existence of the Evil One as a powerful reality. (Uwe Siemon-Netto, UPI)
Archdiocese adds up as big business | The Catholic Church, by many definitions, is one of the biggest businesses going, not to mention one of the most political. (Derrick Z. Jackson, The Boston Globe)
Catholic-Orthodox rift in Russia:
Catholic, Orthodox ties reach new low | By setting up a full-fledged Catholic Church in Russia, the pope has shed all but a few of the ecumenical niceties in the Vatican's approach to the Russian Orthodox Church and has raised new questions about a papal visit. (The Moscow Times)
Bob Jones University seeks minorities | More than 40 minority students have applied for aid through two new funds that are sponsored by private donations, and nine have won scholarships so far (Associated Press)
Pro-marriage activist urges policy | Robert Matheson plans to bring together several dozen southwest Florida clergy to pledge not to marry couples who haven't gone through premarital counseling and at least a yearlong courtship. (Associated Press)
Missions & ministry:
British Army recruits a woman chaplain | Juliette Hulme became disillusioned with parish life because "there were too many committees involved" (The Daily Telegraph)
'Prescription for Hope' | A Christian conference aims to draw attention to the under-funded efforts to combat AIDS (U.S. News & World Report)
Ministry going for God, not gold | Akron drama group will head to Olympics to preach Christianity, abstinence (The Akron Beacon Journal)
Lent:
A tradition revived | Many Protestants, too, celebrated Ash Wednesday (The Cincinnati Post)
Christians who hate the Jews | The Archbishop of Wales is among Churchmen worried that opposition to Israel is motivated by anti-Semitism rooted deep in Christian theology (Melanie Phillips, The Spectator, London)
Ban the Koran | And while you're at it, better nix the Talmud and the Bible too (Alexander Cockburn, WorkingforChange.com)
Magazine banned over Prophet image | Several Muslim countries have banned the latest issue of the Newsweek magazine, warning that depiction of the Prophet Mohammad in it could spark a widespread anger among Muslims (BBC)
Rebel priest gets a deal | Cardinal Francis George agreed Tuesday to extend the Rev. Michael Pfleger's term as pastor of St. Sabina Roman Catholic Church. (Chicago Sun-Times)
Chicago priest given reprieve | Michael Pfleger, the white leader of a largely black parish, has been arrested some 40 times, generating national headlines and irritating some of his superiors in the Catholic hierarchy (Associated Press)
St Paul's reveals a fresh new look | Three hundred years of grime have been removed from the intricate stonework friezes and swags of Sir Christopher Wren's creation using vacuum cleaning, sponging, brushing and the application of latex "face packs" that lift away dirt. (The Daily Telegraph)
Praying the American way | Let the cynics aver that in other parts of the globe faith is in decline, the National Prayer Breakfast proved them wrong (Uwe Siemon-Netto, UPI)
Key voices left out of debate on women in church | Lisa Bertagnoli ignores evangelicals on both sides of discussion (Agnieszka Tennant, Chicago Tribune; Note: Agnieszka Tennant is associate editor of Christianity Today)
While we pray for peace, we need moral clarity about this war.
A Christian reconciliation group in Israel and Palestine warned that war would come. Now the war threatens their relevance.العربيةFrançais
We must always be people of the Word, but we’ll have to reimagine deep engagement with Scripture.
