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Dean, whose wife and children are Jewish, left the Episcopal Church USA in the early 1980s when his parish opposed transferring private property to a bike path. ''Churches are institutions that are about doing the work of God on earth, and I didn't think [opposing the bike path] was very godlike and thought it was hypocritical of me to be a member of such an institution,'' he said. (Conservative pundits, including Mark Steyn, Jay Nordlinger, and James Taranto, mocked Dean when he talked about his Episcopal exit on CNN earlier this month.)

Dean now considers himself a Congregationalist because "there is almost no centralized authority structure," but doesn't regularly attend services.

Earlier this week, one of Dean's Democratic opponents, Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut, made comments seen as critical of Dean's religious views.

"I know that some people believe that faith has no place in the so-called public square," he said. "They forget that the constitutional separation of church and state, which I strongly support, promises freedom of religion, not freedom from religion. Some people forget that faith was central to our founding and remains central to our national purpose and our individual lives."

John Stott suffers mild stroke
A press release from InterVarsity Christian Fellowship brings sad news about one of the great theologians of our day: "Dr. John Stott was admitted to the hospital four nights before Christmas. While there, his MRI scan revealed that he had had a minor stroke, which is now being investigated and evaluated. The doctors are optimistic for a reasonable recovery. He is now convalescing with relatives." Stott was due to address students at IVCF's Urbana conference this week.

The Grand Canyon as metaphor
The debate over Scripture references at the Grand Canyon continues. Liberal pundits aren't just complaining about the National Park Service's reinstallation of three plaques that quote Psalms 68:4, 66:4 and 104:24 at the canyon. They're also furious that a creationist volume, The Grand Canyon: a Different View, is now available at the Grand Canyon bookstore. Add to that the debate over a video at the Lincoln Memorial (which is also overseen by the Park Service) that suggests that the 16th president would have sided with homosexual and abortion activists, and the NPS is becoming a major battleground in the culture wars.

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December (Web-only) 2003, Vol. 47