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Note: Come back to our website later this afternoon (around 5 EST) for a complete roundup of what Christian and mainstream pundits and media are saying about the Supreme Court's decisions.

President of Montreat College resigns as police investigate allegations
Last Wednesday, John S. Lindberg resigned as president of Montreat College, a North Carolina Christian school associated with the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). He had held the job for only two months, so some suspicions were raised when a college press release said only that he was leaving "completely for personal reasons."

This week, those personal reasons were revealed: a 13-year-old girl has accused him of soliciting sex over the Internet.

"The individual that was communicating knew that the victim was 13, or less than 15," Stephen Hampton, Chief of the Statesville Police Department, told Charlotte television station WCNC. "There are no indications they knew one another prior to his contact with her via the Internet."

Police said they are convinced that the e-mail was sent from his Internet address, but no charges have yet been filed.

Yesterday, a judge sealed court documents related to the investigation, including the search warrant "until an arrest warrant is issued, or until a true bill of indictment is returned by the Grand Jury."

The college said they didn't know about the investigation. "We are learning of this investigation at the same time as everyone else," interim president Don King said.

Whether Lindberg is either arrested or cleared, Weblog will of course follow up on this very sad story.

Ten Commandments:

• Court upholds Ten Commandments plaque on courthouse | The 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals said a reasonable person familiar with the Chester County plaque's history would regard the decision to leave it in place as religiously neutral, rather than evangelical (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)
  
  
• Chesco's Commandments can remain | An appeals court cited historical value of the courthouse plaque (The Philadelphia Inquirer)
  
  
• Ten Commandments can stay on courthouse, judges rule (The Express-Times, Pa.)
  
  

Franklin Graham:

• Emergency relief | The embattled Franklin Graham sends aid to Iraq despite a welter of hand-wringing over what it will do to Muslim-Christian relations (World)
  
  
• Franklin Graham's works defy anti-Muslim image | In the summer of 1999 in a boggy field on the Albanian coast, I saw a dozen Samaritan's Purse staffers build and run a small tent town for 2,000 mostly Muslim refugees who had fled ethnic violence in Kosovo (Van Kornegay, The State, Columbia, S.C.)
  
  

Life ethics:

• Abortion ship leaves Polish port | Left for international waters with about a dozen Polish women aboard (BBC)
  
  
• Home abortions call triggers row | Antiabortion campaigners say home terminations would not be safe for women (BBC)
  
  
• Abortion rights supporters challenge specialty plates | They seek to counter 'Choose Life' tags (The Times-Picayune, New Orleans)
  
  
• Planned Parenthood suing state | Loss of funding for clinics called a political attack (Houston Chronicle)
  
  

Faith-based initiative:

• Faith, hope, and government | A former Bush adviser explains why the consensus favoring federal support for faith-based social services collapsed—and why it must be revived (John J. Diiulio Jr, The Boston Globe)
  
  
• Bid to defund faith-based groups fails | Rep. Chet Edwards (D.-Tex.), offered a hastily crafted amendment to the Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education spending bill that would ensure that none of the funds appropriated in the bill would go to any group that "discriminates in job hiring based on religion." (The Washington Times)
  
  

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June (Web-only) 2003, Vol. 47