Don't mail Christian materials to soldiers, says U.S.
The post office in Lenoir, North Carolina, told Jack Moody that he couldn't mail Christian comic books and a book of Bible verses to his son, who is stationed as an Army National Guardsman in the Middle East. U.S. rules prohibit mailing  "any matter containing religious materials contrary to Islamic faith," a postal clerk explained.

This morning, the Rutherford Institute, a civil and religious liberties organization, is suing the U.S. Postmaster General over the rule.

"At a time when members of our armed forces are risking their lives as part of Operation Iraqi Freedom, it is inconceivable that their own freedoms and those of their parents would be curtailed by the U.S. government in an effort to impose political correctness on our armed forces," said Rutherford head John W. Whitehead in a press release. "The U.S. Constitution does not bow to the religious intolerance of other nations."

No, says Postal Service spokesman Mark Saunders, but there's no use in mailing items if they'll be confiscated by customs agents. "That's reality. Anything going to another country has to go through Customs," he told The Charlotte Observer.

"The local post office should have let Moody ship the books," officials told the Observer. "The restriction doesn't apply to religious materials sent to individuals overseas, the wording of the regulation has caused confusion, and the MPSA is reviewing the regulation to try to clarify it."

But the Postal Service agrees that the rule, adopted around the time of the last Gulf War, is too vague. "Any matter containing religious materials contrary to Islamic faith or depicting nude or seminude persons, pornographic or sexual items, or nonauthorized political ...