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• Also: Bill wants pledge to start each school day | Religious schools would be exempt from the requirement if administrators felt it violated their religious doctrine (Sioux City [Iowa] Journal)
  
  
• Controversy brews over Senate prayers | For some lawmakers, the state's staggering budget deficit seemed to have taken a back seat recently to a brewing controversy over injecting the name of Jesus in the state Senate's daily opening prayers (The Gazette, Frederick County, Md.)
  
  
• U.S. Department of Justice appeals ruling on cross | In a move that will keep the Mojave Cross up for at least a few more months, the U.S. Department of Justice appealed the ruling that declared the cross unconstitutional because it is on government-owned land (San Bernardino County Sun)
  
  
• S.C. high court: Jurors aren't required to swear oath to God | The court ruled unanimously yesterday that Circuit Judge Marc Westbrook was wrong to dismiss a Lee County juror who said he couldn't agree to the phrase "so help you God" when taking his oath (Associated Press)

Banned Bible club approved at Colorado school:

• Boulder Valley School District clubs policy revamped | Decision helps clear way for recently rejected Bible club (The Boulder Daily Camera)
  
  
• Also: Board OKs school Bible club | Monarch students force policy change in Boulder Valley (Denver Rocky Mountain News)
  
  
• Also: District eases limits on school clubs (The Denver Post)

Discrimination:

• Religion and jails | The Orange County Jail shouldn't have rewarded inmates for religious attendance (Editorial, The Orlando Sentinel)
  
  
• Veterans cemetery aide fired for invoking God | Patrick Cubbage insists that he was operating within the federal rules for honor guards and is challenging his dismissal (The Washington Times)

Persecution and religious freedom:

• Turks edge toward faith freedom | Turkey gradually seems to adjust its religious freedoms to European norms as it tries to win acceptance into the European Union, a top Roman Catholic expert says (UPI)
  
  
• Report: China detains underground priest | The Rev. Dong Yingmu, 37, was picked up in Baoding, a city in the central province of Hubei with a large underground church, said Joseph Kung, president of the Cardinal Kung Foundation (Associated Press)
  
  
• Zimbabwe police free bishop | Bishop Trevor Manhanga and four human rights activists were arrested when police armed with batons stormed into a meeting aimed at discussing the role of the church in Zimbabwe's crisis (BBC)

Politics and law:

• And on the 7th day, State Stores opened | Pennsylvania's age-old blue laws, it seems, are finally fading away (The Philadelphia Inquirer)
  
  
• Faith can compromise presidency | Sociological studies on the nature of professional conduct in organizational settings suggest that leaders who rely on religious templates when making decisions are less likely to make good decisions than those who consult experienced authority (Paul R. Henggeler, Newsday)
  
  
• Joe saves face | Lieberman abandons End Time Christians (Hartford Advocate)
  
  
• Sharia law moves to Nigeria's Christian south | Islamic sharia law is making inroads into the predominantly Christian south of Nigeria at a time when religion is expected to be a crucial issue in looming general elections (Independent, South Africa)

War with Iraq:

• Bush team attempts to sell Iraq plan to religious foes | Important elements of the religious community remain unconvinced (The Wall Street Journal)
  
  
• The pious & the war | We have absolutized "war" to the extent that it has become an abstraction of evil instead of an element in the analysis of justice (James V. Schall, S. J., National Review Online)
  
  

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February (Web-only) 2003, Vol. 47